There are some books that you seem to see everywhere. 2020 Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain is one of them.



It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. 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 Bain is a remarkably engaging book. I soon became invested in the lives of its lifelike characters, and it became very difficult to put the book down. The characters are definitely one of the book's strongest features, written with incredible attention to detail and surprising subtlety. I feel as if I actually got to know them, and I found the character of Agnes Bain especially compelling.

Although I think Shuggie Bain completely deserves all the praise it has received, I am a little surprised that so many people have fallen in love with it. I wonder if the story of a working-class family trying to survive in Thatcher-era Glasgow is one people haven't heard before; perhaps if it's one they think deserves to be told. What I think Douglas Stuart does really well is tell this story with dignity. Shuggie Bain is a heart-breaking story, but it's well-written, engaging, and as tender as it is bleak.