New novel featuring Bob Dylan, Boy from the North Country, given September release date

A novel from debuting author Sam Sussman will feature a character with ties to veteran songwriter, Bob Dylan.

The book, Boy from the North Country, makes reference to the Nashville Skyline song, Girl from the North Country. The book is set to make more than a few references to Dylan across its three hundred and thirty-six pages, too. Boy from the North Country will release on September 16, 2025. The novel was inspired by Sussman’s own paternal doubts, with the “emotionally searing meditation” described as a “deeply moving” debut novel in a new listing of the book on Penguin Random House’s website. Dylan historian David Yaffe praised the book and says Dylan is at his “most alive and inspired” through the novel.

He wrote: “Boy from the North Country reveals Bob Dylan at his most alive and inspired, as you have never seen him before. This book is a monumental event for anyone who cares about Dylan. More meaningfully, the book transforms into an emotionally moving story of what it means to love a mother and be a son. Sussman has written one of the Great Millennial Novels and proved himself an inheritor of Dylan’s lyrical tradition.”

A description for the book reads: “A son returns home to his dying mother to discover the astonishing truth of his origins and the secrets of a woman whose life and wisdom he is only beginning to understand

“When Evan, twenty-six, is suddenly called home from his life abroad to the secluded farmhouse where he was raised by his mother, June, there is so much he does not yet know. He doesn’t know his mother is dying. He still doesn’t know the identity of his biological father or the elusive story of his mother’s creatively intense, emotionally turbulent romance with Bob Dylan, whom Evan reveres as an artist and whom strangers have long insisted he resembles.

“He doesn’t know the secrets of his mother’s life before he was born or what drove her to leave New York City for a completely different existence. In this deeply moving debut novel, Sam Sussman writes one of the most tender and intimate mother-son relationships of our era.

“Caring for his mother as her illness worsens, and as she begins to tell him truths he has waited so long to hear, Evan comes to understand the startling gift this extraordinary woman has bequeathed him.

“Inspired by the author’s own uncertain celebrity paternity, Boy from the North Country is an emotionally searing meditation on the most essential human themes: loss, healing, memory, and the redemptive power of love.”

Further praise for the book from Aminatta Forna, author of The Devil That Danced on the Water, dubbed the book a “dazzling” piece.

Forna wrote: “A dazzling book that promises everything and delivers more. Boy from the North Country is a beautifully written, emotionally nuanced portrait of a woman in all her complexity and courage.”

A further description of the book uploaded to Penguin Press’ Instagram page reads: “We are thrilled to announce Boy from the North Country (Bob Dylan fans: if you know, you know), the debut novel from Sam Sussman, coming this September! ⁠

“This breathtaking love letter from a son to his mother is being described as ‘A monumental event for anyone who cared about Dylan.’ Evan, 26, returns home from abroad to care for his mother, unaware that his journey will lead to the startling secrets of his origin.

“With her illness worsening, June begins to recount her youth in the electrifying 1970s New York art world, and her romantic relationship with Bob Dylan, who strangers have long insisted Evan resembles. As June tells her story of love, sacrifice, and resilience, Evan comes to understand the startling gift this extraordinary woman has chosen to leave him.”