Shuggie Bain

Sue says about Shuggie Bain: "A wonderful story about a young lad trying to save his mother from alcoholism - Shuggie is one of my favourite characters ever!"

A heart-wrenchingly moving 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.

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, her 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.

Author: Stuart, Douglas
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Published on 15 April 2021 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 480 pages
131 x 196 x 30 | 330g