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For your reading list  Credit: Grove Atlantic Shuggie Bain came out in February but it's out in paperback this month, and been gathering a ton of press recently: It's shortlisted for both the National Book Award and the Booker Prize; a finalist for both the Kirkus and Center for Fiction First Novel prizes. It's safe to say it's highly acclaimed.
And, boy, is it deserving.
This vivid, sweeping novel tells the story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain and his upbringing in 1980s and early 90s Glasgow, a city struggling with the closure of its mines and the resulting widespread unemployment. He and his mother, Agnes, live in rundown public housing, which his half brother and sister — despite loving Shuggie dearly — can't flee fast enough. Agnes is living with alcoholism, which brings her often to the point of incapacitation, and no one but Shuggie knows how to care for her. Indeed Shuggie all but worships his mother and has learned how to tend to her as if she were the child and he the parent. Theirs is a beautiful and tragic relationship: Shuggie isn't like other boys; his neighbors, father, and teachers warn Agnes that he's "not right." He doesn't understand what makes him different, or why such difference is bad, but Agnes sees and loves and defends who is: a child who doesn't yet have the language or models to recognize his queerness.
Douglas Stuart — who spent 12 years creating this masterpiece — has drawn a vivid picture of working class Glasgow, clearly evoking the smells and sounds and textures of Shuggie's bleak corner of the city. Told in multiple distinct third person perspectives, Stuart invites you into this complicated but tender family and the individual struggles of not only Agnes and Shuggie, but also of Shuggie's brother, Leek, who wants to be an artist but knows it's impractical; his sister, Catherine, who marries young and follows her husband to a job in South Africa; and his estranged father and namesake, who decided early on he couldn't handle his wife's alcoholism and son's identity. Stuart's writing is reminiscent of Frank McCourt's in its scope and poignancy, and the novel is both heartbreaking and heartwarming — though more so the former. It's absolutely one of my favorite books of the year. Get your copy. — Arianna Rebolini
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