Shuggie Bain

Hugh, known as Shuggie Bain, grows up in 1980s Glasgow. He is a lonely, innocent boy who lives in social housing. His family is working-class, and their city is in decline. Margaret Thatcher’s policies have cost men their jobs. The drug trade spreads through the city.

This is Douglas Stuart’s first novel, a work of literary fiction. It looks at addiction, sex, love and who we are. It also deals with what it means when people leave us. Shuggie and his mother, Agnes, stand at its heart. Stuart shows that their lives hold more than pain.

The novel won the 2020 Booker Prize. The British Book Awards named it book of the year. It also made the shortlist for the National Book Award. This edition forms part of the Anansi series. Mihaela Ghita translated the book from English.

Stuart was born in Glasgow in 1976. He now lives in New York and is Scottish-American. He has published stories in The New Yorker. His second novel, Young Mungo, came out in 2022.