Stewart O'Nan

... that, that's, that's...

Well, so this is based on a Stewart O'Nan book, who also wrote Snow Angels, the, the book that Snow Angel's based on.

Right.

So if you remember watching Snow Angels and go, "Man, that movie's fricking depressing," same author.

[laughs]

Mine's an older book, um, Stuart O'Nan, Prayer for the Dying, that's just, uh...

And I stole b- I stole one of Billy's answers, I'm sure.

Um, but I'm the one who recommended it to him.

On this episode, I am talking with Johnny Flynn about A Prayer for the Dying, directed by Dara Van Dusen in her feature debut.

The film adapts Stewart O'Nan's novel of the same name, itself loosely inspired by the Book of Job.

Flynn plays Jacob Hanson, a traumatized war veteran confronting an epidemic sweeping through a Scandinavian immigrant community in 1870s Wisconsin, alongside John C. Reilly.

The film premiered on February 13th, 2026, at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it picked up a Best First Feature nomination, and Quiver Distribution has since picked it up for North American release.

It's not a Western.

It might be a Midwestern.

Basically, yeah, Dara Van Dusen sent me the script, who is the writer and director, adapted Stewart O'Nan's brilliant novella, and it just had me from the first few pages, really.

And then what really cemented it for me was reading the book that it's based on, that Stewart O'Nan's book, and it's written in such an eerie style.

Um, uh, so I'm, I'm pretty sure that that's, uh, [laughs] the, the, that's the, the truth there.

But for me, uh, I never read, um, his, uh, the, the book, the baseball book he wrote with Stuart O'Nan.

Hmm.

Is it Faithful, is that what it was?

It's based on Gavin Bain's California Scheming: How Two Lads from Scotland Conned the Music Industry, and it tells the true story of two Scottish friends who attempt to break into the American music industry by pretending to be successful hip-hop artists.

The last thing on October 9th is A Prayer for the Dying, which comes to theaters based on the book of the same name by Stuart O'Nan.

This historical drama follows a community grappling with violence, death, and the devastating effects of an epidemic.

Where have we seen that before?

Yeah

... is Faithful, which is the book he co-wrote with Stuart O'Nan about the Red Sox.

Oh.

So one of his nonfiction ones.