''Shuggie Bain'' is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020. It tells the story of the youngest of three children, Shuggie, growing up with his alcoholic mother Agnes in 1980s

post-industrial In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy. The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related to s ...

working-class

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The novel was awarded the

2020 Booker Prize The 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on 19 November 2020. The Booker longlist of 13 books was announced on 27 July, and was narrowed down to a shortlist of six on 15 September. The Prize was awarded to Douglas Stuart for his debut nove ...

, making Stuart the second Scottish winner of the prize in its 51-year history, following James Kelman in 1994. ''Shuggie Bain'' was also a finalist for the 2020

National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...

, the 2021

Dayton Literary Peace Prize The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...

, and the 2020

John Leonard Prize for Best First Book The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".National Book Critics Circle. It was also selected as a notable book by the

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on their 2021

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for adult fiction. It is written in English, but

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

is in Scots. As of April 2022, the novel has sold more than 1.5 million copies globally.

Plot

The novel opens in 1992, when Hugh "Shuggie" Bain is 15 years old and living alone in a boarding house in Glasgow. He aspires to be a hairdresser while working shifts at a supermarket deli. He leaves work, placing tin cans of fish in his bag. In 1981, five-year-old Shuggie is living in a tenement flat in

Sighthill Sighthill may refer to: * Sighthill, Edinburgh Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse and Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and the Calders ...

with his maternal grandparents, Wullie and Lizzie; his mother, Agnes Bain; his father, Hugh "Shug" Bain; his half-brother, Leek; and his half-sister, Catherine. Shuggie's father is mostly absent, working as a cab driver and having affairs with other women. Agnes is a beautiful woman often compared to

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

, but she is unfulfilled by her life and takes to drinking. The following year Shug moves the family into a council flat in Pithead for families of workers of the local mine. He ultimately abandons the family there, leaving them to live with Joanie Micklewhite, the dispatcher of his cab company. Agnes desires a life of glamour, taking pride in her appearance, but her unhappiness drives her reliance on alcohol. Meanwhile, Shuggie is bullied at school and in the neighbourhood for not fitting in and for being effeminate. Shuggie often misses school to act as his mother's caregiver during her hangovers. Agnes' parents die and her daughter marries young, moving to South Africa. Agnes' alcoholism worsens, and she is taken advantage of by abusive men. Her future looks brighter when she starts going to

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

meetings and takes a job as a petrol-station attendant. She manages to stay off drink completely for a year, during which time she meets a cab driver named Eugene, whom she begins to date. Eugene often drinks in front of her during dinners. He eventually convinces Agnes to drink a glass of wine, and she relapses into alcoholism. Put off by her alcoholism, Eugene leaves her. After a sexual assault at a party she attends when drunk, Agnes downward spirals and loses her job. She makes multiple suicide attempts over the next few years. Agnes' alcoholism continues to alienate her from her children. In one of her drunken rages, she kicks Leek out of the house. Despite her behaviour, Shuggie maintains an unwavering devotion to her. The two of them move to a more inner-city neighbourhood, and Agnes promises to stop drinking, but unable to change their circumstances, their relationship becomes strained as Shuggie grows older. In a drunken stupor, Agnes dies after inhaling her own saliva. Back in 1992, Shuggie gives the tins of fish to his friend Leanne, who gives them to her homeless alcoholic mother.

Publication and sales

Douglas Stuart wrote ''Shuggie Bain'' over a period of a decade, while balancing the demands of his successful job in fashion design. The manuscript was rejected by at least 30 publishers before it was purchased by the American independent publisher,

Grove Atlantic Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "An ...

. The novel was first published in the United States in

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...

Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...

on 11 February 2020. Later, the

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imprint of

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published it in the United Kingdom first as a softback open market edition (OME) on 20 February 2020, and as a hardcover on 6 August 2020. By April 2021, rights had been sold for the book in 38 languages, including Dutch, Finnish,

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, Korean,

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, Mongolian, Portuguese,

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also

* * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

and Vietnamese. The translations have been financed through grants from the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund with assistance from

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( gd, Alba Chruthachail ; sco, Creative Scotlan) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The o ...

. The book's initial publication was impacted by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Grove Press shipped approximately 7,000 copies to bookstores, but only around 1,000 hardcover copies sold in the first two months of its publication, according to NPD BookScan data. In late 2020, the book received a renewal of attention when it was nominated for numerous literary awards. In response, Grove pushed the publication of the paperback edition up from December to 13 October 2022. As of October 2020, Grove had printed 30,000 copies. The novel went to the top of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' bestsellers list and to number 3 on the ''New York Times'' list. As of April 2022, the novel has sold more than 1.5 million copies globally. The Grove Press cover features a photograph by Peter Marlow. Douglas Stuart expressed a fondness for the photograph, saying that "it captures perfectly the fierce love that Shuggie has for his troubled mother". The Picador cover features a photograph by Jez Coulson, shot in

Easterhouse Easterhouse is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, east of the city centre on land gained from the county of Lanarkshire as part of an expansion of Glasgow before the Second World War. The area is on high ground north of the River Clyde and south ...

, Glasgow (about which Stuart tweeted on 13 August 2020:" I was instantly struck by the power of Jez's photo the moment I saw it").

Editions in English

* * * *

Reception

The novel was widely reviewed, not without reservations, but almost uniformly positive in the final assessment, and found a place on many prominent lists of the best books of 2020. Writing in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', Alex Preston said: "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. This is a memorable book about family, violence and sexuality." Reviewing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Leah Hager Cohen Leah Hager Cohen is an American author who writes both fiction and nonfiction. Cohen's father was superintendent of the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, New York, and she became fluent in sign language there. She entered NYU at age 16, int ...

wrote that "the book would be just about unbearable were it not for the author's astonishing capacity for love. He's lovely, Douglas Stuart, fierce and loving and lovely. He shows us lots of monstrous behavior, but not a single monster — only damage. If he has a sharp eye for brokenness, he is even keener on the inextinguishable flicker of love that remains." In the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', Cal Revely-Calder called the novel "an astonishing portrait, drawn from life, of a society left to die – forgotten by those who didn't believe in society, and told it to care for itself." Allan Massie in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' noted that Stuart "hides nothing of the horrors of galloping alcoholism, but there is a gallantry about Agnes which commands respect and admiration, however reluctantly." The review in ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' concluded: "How can love be so powerful and so helpless at the same time? 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." Comparing the book to another of the year's

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

shortlisted works, ''Real Life'' by Brandon Taylor, Shougat Dasgupta noted in ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' that both novels were "bound by a sense of dread and a groping towards love", and went on to describe ''Shuggie Bain'' as a part of a "rich seam of contemporary Scottish working class writing." Summarising, the review stated: "Occasionally, ''Shuggie Bain'', with its sentimentality and overwhelming squalor, can veer close to self-parody but is always pulled back from the brink by its enormous heart, by the enormous love that binds Shuggie to Agnes." ''Shuggie Bain'' was longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, shortlisted for the 2020

Center for Fiction First Novel Prize __NOTOC__ The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize is an annual award presented by The Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York City, for the best debut novel. From 2006 to 2011, it was called the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Pri ...

, and was a finalist for the 2020

Kirkus Prize The Kirkus Prize is an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine ''Kirkus Reviews''. Established in 2014, the Kirkus Prize bestows annually. Three authors are awarded each, divided into three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, ...

as well as the 2020

. On 19 November 2020, it was announced as the winner of the

, chosen by a judging panel comprising

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

(chair),

Lee Child James Dover Grant (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his ''Jack Reacher'' novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American ...

, Sameer Rahim, Lemn Sissay, and Emily Wilson. Interviewed at the time of his Booker longlisting, Stuart said that the previous Scottish winner of the prize, James Kelman's ''

How Late It Was, How Late ''How late it was, how late'' is a 1994 stream-of-consciousness novel written by Scottish writer James Kelman. The Glasgow-centred work is written in a working-class Scottish dialect, and follows Sammy, a shoplifter and ex-convict. It won the ...

'' (1994), changed his life and was "one of the first times I saw my people, my dialect, on the page". The novel headed ''The Telegraph''s list of "The 50 best books of 2020" and was picked by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' as the year's best novel, in addition to being named as one of the best books of the year by many other publications and outlets, including ''The New York Times'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

'', the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' and '' Elle''. In 2021, a mural inspired by the novel was unveiled on the wall of the

Barrowland Ballroom The Barrowland Ballroom (also known as Barrowlands) is a dance hall and music venue in Glasgow, Scotland. History The original building opened in 1934 in a mercantile area east of Glasgow's city centre, built by Maggie McIver, the "Barras Queen ...

in Glasgow, featuring Shuggie Bain dancing in the street, together with a quote from his mother Agnes: "You'll not remember the city, you were too wee, but there's dancing. All kinds of dancing." The artwork and lettering was created by the Cobolt Collective – comprising

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

2015 graduates Erin Bradley-Scott, Chelsea Frew and Kat Loudon – and is 20 meters high and 20 meters wide. In his response, Douglas Stuart said: "I hope the mural inspires other weans to dream big with their creativity. It's definitely one of the proudest moments of my life." ''Shuggie Bain'' was included on the " Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books selected by the BBC and The Reading Agency to celebrate the

Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II The Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration in 2022 marking the Platinum jubilee, 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952, the first British monarch to ever celebrate one. In the Un ...

in June 2022.

Television adaptation

In December 2020, it was announced that

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

and Scott Rudin Productions won the rights for a television adaptation of ''Shuggie Bain'', with

Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as ''Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon ...

and

Eli Bush Eli Bush is an American film and theatre producer and former executive at Scott Rudin Productions. He is best known for producing the film '' Lady Bird'', for which he co-won the 2018 Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy and w ...

as producers and Stuart himself set to adapt the novel. In November 2022, the

confirmed the adaptation, which will be filmed in Scotland and broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

and

iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

. Stuart will adapt ''Shuggie Bain'' himself. A24 will co-produce and hold international distribution rights.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

"Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart on his debut novel 'Shuggie Bain' , Louisiana Channel"
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, August 2021. Via YouTube. * Craig McLean
"Shuggie Bain: 10 Images That Inspired A Booker Prize Winner"
''Mr Porter'', 14 April 2021. {{Authority control 2020 American novels 2020 British novels 2020 debut novels 2020s LGBT novels American LGBT novels Booker Prize-winning works British LGBT novels Grove Press books Novels about alcoholism Novels about dysfunctional families Novels set in Glasgow Novels set in the 1980s Novels set in the 1990s Novels with gay themes Picador (imprint) books Scottish bildungsromans Scottish novels Third-person narrative novels