Shuggie Bain

The Million-Copy Bestseller & Winner of the Booker Prize

By: Douglas Stuart

Narrated by: Angus King

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' AND 'DEBUT OF THE YEAR' AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS
THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER

'An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love.' – The judges of the Booker Prize

'Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.' – The Observer

'Shuggie Bain means so much to me. It is such a powerfully written story . . . I love a heartbreak book but there is so much love within this one, particularly between Shuggie and his mother Agnes.' – Dua Lipa

It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves.

It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place.

Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride. For readers of A Little Life and Angela's Ashes, it is a heartbreaking novel by a brilliant writer with a powerful and important story to tell.

'A heartbreaking novel' – The Times

'Tender and unsentimental . . . The Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.' – Daily Mail

Critic reviews

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.

Leaves us gutted and marvelling: Life may be short, but it takes forever.

I think it’s the best first book I’ve read in many years. (Karl Ove Knausgård)

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)

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.

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)

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.

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)

Shuggie Bain is a novel that aims for the heart and finds it. (John Self)

Tender and unsentimental . . . and the Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.

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.

An outstanding book . . . Magnificently done . . . Wonderful. (Lee Child)

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.

This heartfelt and harrowing debut novel – which has been compared to the work of Édouard 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.

A formidable story, lyrically told, about intimacy, family, and love. (12 Best Books of 2020 So Far)

One that will stay with me...

Descriptions fabulous, but the dialogue is the star and all the better on audio, such a talented actor bringing the story to life, a story of love, abuse, poverty, reality..

Excellent in all ways

The narrator rocks! Just as all the rest, the story, the characters, you name it!

Outstanding

Takes the reader back to a time and place. Fabulously written, funny, hopeful and profound.
A worthy winner a must read!

Mostly frustratingly sad with Shuggie a jewel in the shite!

Beautifully delivered! At times so depressing it got me down. What a horrible life for the poor in Glasgow; a sick society that endorsed “fingering girls and getting pissed” as the only legitimate pastime for teenage boys!

Insightful narration

Immersive read about one of the most depressing chapters in British history narrated through lenses of a single family. It is about love and responsibility, empathy and cruelty. It opens up a perspective on alcoholism that is prevalent also in today's societies. Worth every minute spent listening to this story.