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Why it matters
Stuart gives a working-class family’s pain unusual tenderness without softening addiction’s consequences.
A celebrated work
Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart2020 selection · Literary fiction
Shuggie Bain
Young Shuggie grows up in 1980s Glasgow devoted to his mother Agnes as alcohol dependence consumes her life. Poverty and neighborhood cruelty shape his effort to care for her and understand himself.
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Read this if…
You want an intense coming-of-age novel about loyalty and survival.
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Ideas inside
addictionpovertyfamilyGlasgow
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