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Shuggie Bain

The Million-Copy Bestseller & Winner of the Booker Prize

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Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart
Narrated by: Angus King
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About this listen

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

 Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Urban Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Marriage

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)
All stars
Most relevant
Sad but wonderful . Outstanding narration .l am obliged to keep writing as l am instructed that a review requires fifteen words .

Dazzling

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Despite the harrowing subject, this is such a brilliantly written, rich and humane book that I couldn’t stop listening. Haven’t been so absorbed for a very long time. Stuart brings to life characters with amazing depth of feeling and honesty. A brilliant read from start to finish.

My best read this year

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Loved this story it was fantastic, funny and also heartbreaking.
Couldn't stop listening to it.

Fabulous

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Narration was perfect. I laughed, got angry and cried, very emotional book. Will read again and again I'm sure.

Brilliany

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This is a heartfelt story set in the late 70s/80's in Glasgow. Centred around the relationships of a boy and his mother and alcohol. At times the story is painful to read, but also has a certain amount of Glasgow humour (banter) throughout. To add to the troubles for the boy, he does not really know who he is and is getting mixed messages from all the adults - as was the case in those days. There are many strong characters within the story that are very recognisable to people about my age. I would urge anyone to read this book and not feel the sheer despair and yet profound sympathy with the various characters and their situations they find themselves in. What was known today as Thatcher's Britain! To be clear though, this book is not about politics, it’s about people and the situations they were in.
The narrator does a fantastic job with the accents making the whole book come alive as he reads. Well done Angus. As the headline says, this is a well deserved Booker prize winner, for a first-time author. Douglas, keep writing I am sure there is more to come.

My book of the year. A well deserved Booker Prize.

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