A heart-wrenchingly moving first novel set in Glasgow during the Thatcher years, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a boy's doomed attempt to save his proud, alcoholic mother from her addiction.
Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York, where he began a career in design. Shuggie Bain is his debut novel. It has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. It has also been longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in the New Yorker and his essay on Gender, Anxiety and Class was published by Lit Hub.
A heartbreaking novel, a book both beautiful and brutal . .
. All that grief and sadness and misery has been turned into
something tough, tender and beautifully sad. * The Times *
Leaves us gutted and marvelling: Life may be short, but it
takes forever. * New York Times *
I think it's the best first book I've read in many years. -- Karl
Ove Knausgard * Guardian *
Rarely does a debut novel establish its world with such
sure-footedness, and Stuart's prose is lithe, lyrical and full
of revelatory descriptive insights. -- Alex Preston * Observer
*
An astonishing portrait, drawn from life, of a society left to die
. . . Shuggie Bain has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. In a
just world, it would win. * Daily Telegraph *
Shuggie Bain comes from a deep understanding of the
relationship between a child and a substance-abusing parent,
showing a world rarely portrayed in literary fiction . . .
Admirable and important. -- Sarah Moss * Guardian *
This is a dysfunctional love story . . . between a boy and
his mother . . . what makes his book a worthy contender for the
Booker is his portrayal of their bond, together with all its
perpetual damage. * Financial Times *
Douglas Stuart's startling Glasgow-set debut novel creates a world
of poverty and suffering offset by pure, heart-filling, love . . .
It's a novel that deserves, and will surely often get, a second
reading. -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *
Shuggie Bain is a novel that aims for the heart and finds it. --
John Self * The Times *
Tender and unsentimental . . . and the Billy Elliot-ish character
of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page. * Daily Mail *
Beautiful and bleak but with enough warmth and optimism to carry
the reader through. -- Graham Norton (via Twitter)
A boy's heartbreaking love for his mother . . . as intense
and excruciating to read as any novel I have ever held in my hand .
. . The book's evocative power arises out of the author's talent
for conjuring a place, a time, and the texture of emotion . . .
brilliantly written. * Newsday *
An outstanding book . . . Magnificently done . . . Wonderful. --
Lee Child * Sunday Post *
A debut novel that reads like a masterpiece, Shuggie
Bain gives voice to the kind of helpless, hopeless love that
children can feel toward broken parents. * Washington Post *
This heartfelt and harrowing debut novel - which has been compared
to the work of Edouard Louis, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara,
and which Kirkus has already called "a masterpiece" . . . is
rightly being heralded for its visceral, emotionally nuanced
portrayal of working class Scottish life and its blazingly intimate
exploration of a mother-son relationship. * LitHub *
A formidable story, lyrically told, about intimacy, family, and
love. -- 12 Best Books of 2020 So Far * ELLE (US) *
The way Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting carved a permanent
place in our heads and hearts for the junkies of late-1980s
Edinburgh, the language, imagery, and story of fashion designer
Stuart's debut novel apotheosizes the life of the Bain family of
Glasgow... Readers may get through the whole novel without breaking
down-then read the first sentence of the acknowledgements and lose
it. The emotional truth embodied here will crack you open. You
will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is
a masterpiece. -- Kirkus Reviews starred review
A rare and haunting ode to 1980s Glasgow and its struggling
communities, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a collapsing
family that is lashed together by love alone. Douglas Stuart
writes with startling, searing intimacy. I fell hard for these
characters; when they have nothing left, they cling
maddeningly-irresistibly-to humor, pride and hope * Chia-Chia Lin
*
Shuggie Bain is an intimate and frighteningly acute
exploration of a mother-son relationship and a masterful portrait
of alcoholism in Scottish working class life, rendered with
old-school lyrical realism . . . I kept being reminded of
Joyce's Dubliners. -- Sandra Newman, author of The
Heavens
There's no way to fake the life experience that forms the bedrock
of Douglas Stuart's wonderful Shuggie Bain. No way to
fake the talent either. Shuggie will knock you sideways *
Richard Russo *
A dark shining work. Raw, formidable, bursting with tenderness
and frailty. The effect is remarkable, it will make you
cry. -- Karl Geary, author of Montpelier Parade
Every now and then a novel comes along that feels necessary and
inevitable. I'll never forget Shuggie and Agnes or the incredibly
detailed Glasgow they inhabit. This is the rare contemporary
novel that reads like an instant classic. I'll be thinking and
talking about Shuggie Bain - and teaching it - for quite
some time. -- Garrard Conley, New York Times-bestselling author of
Boy Erased
Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1980s is the backdrop for this story of
the fraught bond between a young boy and his mother. -- 'The 22
Best Books to Read This Winter' * Vogue (US) *
Compulsively readable... As [the novel] beautifully and shockingly
illustrates how Shuggie ends up alone, this novel offers a
testament to the indomitable human spirit. Very highly recommended
-- Library Journal starred review
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
