About this item
Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamorous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion’s share of each week’s benefits—all the family has to live on—on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes’s older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is “no right,” a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her—even her beloved Shuggie.
About the Author
Douglas Stuart is a Scottish - American author. His work has been translated into 40 languages. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain, is the winner of the 2020 Booker Prize. It won the Sue Kaufman award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book of the Year, and the Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021. It was also Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year. Shuggie Bain was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, the Pen Hemingway Award, the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, The Rathbones Folio, the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a #1 Sunday Times Bestseller, a finalist for the Carnegie Medal, the British Book of the Year (Fiction) , the Polari prize. His short stories have been published by The New Yorker. His essays on Gender, Class and Anxiety are featured on Lit Hub. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, after receiving his MA from the Royal College of Art in London, he has lived and worked in New York City. Follow him on instagram at Douglas_Stuart or Twitter at Doug_D_Stuart
