Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart

Narrated by: Angus King

This is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher’s policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city’s notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: She is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion’s share of each week’s benefits - all the family has to live on - on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs.

Agnes’ older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Meanwhile, Shuggie is struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is “no right”, a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her - even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction.

©2020 Douglas Stuart (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

LISTEN TO THIS ONE

Beautifully written and perfectly narrated. Travel to Glasgow and meet Shuggie and his mother. You won't be disappointed!

Heartbreaking.

The narrator was one of the best I have heard. He brought this beautiful heartbreak to life. For any child who has loved and loathed in equal measure her alcoholic parent, listen to this book. It will make you laugh, cry, and wince in pain, all while reminding you why we love. Bravo.

Shuggie Bain Is As Good As All the Hype

The novel is good, maybe even great. As an audiobook, it's magical. Angus King's ability to inhabit all the characters in this family saga is absolute; and since each of the characters is drawn so thoroughly and succinctly by Douglas Stuart, in this audiobook one is able to enjoy getting to know, and if not love at least understand, each of the many characters in this book. As many reviewers for "important" publicatons have said, the characters in Shuggie Bain are as well drawn as are those in a Dickens Novel.

As I listened to the narration, I kept being reminded of "Grapes of Wrath," despite the fact that while Shuggie moves a few times over the course of the novel, the Joads cross half the North American Continent. But then again, maybe that's indicative of how differently Americans and Scots view landscapes.

More importantly, in Shuggies tale, he is moved about by his alchoholic mother, whose frustration with her lot in life is truly the bain of the entire families existence; but still, one could argue that Agnes' frustration with her lack of social standing result from the fact that she and her family have been discarded, like many, many, many others, by the inhumane government run by Margaret Thatcher and her cronies.

In telling the story of little Shuggie, Stuart lets us know just how true it is when we hear that Thatcherism was unforgiving and demoralizing for huge numbers of people, and despite the fact that almost everyone gets out of the story alive, none are left untraumatized. And we all know that traumatized people pass on their trauma to their successor generations, sometimes ad infinitum, until the traumas are addressed.

Douglas Stuart got out of Scotland, and ultimately wrote this beautiful novel, but after listening to the last few moments of this audibook, one is left with the sense that even he has not fully healed from the traumas out of which this novel sprang.

A book so good I forgot it was 2020

It’s been a rough year but Shuggie Bain is a bright spot. One of the best Booker Mann award winners I’ve ever read (listened to). Raw, tender and heartbreaking. Having grown up with Glaswegian grandparents, I also loved hearing the Scottish accent and language in all its forms - fantastic narrator.

A slow burn

This one took me a bit to get hooked. The opening scenes are gritty and unsympathetic. But then most of the novel is in flashback, and that's where the depth, humanity, and love shine through the really rough trajectory of Shuggie and his alcoholic mother, in a really beautiful coming - of-age story set in the working class tenements of Glasgow and environs.

Amazing

Genuinely one of the most moving books I have ever read. Left me thinking about for some time after I finished.

I wanted to adopt Shuggie Bain.

Amazing how something so sad, tragic and abysmal can still be warm, funny and uplifting. Thank you Shuggie for showing us that even in the worst of times we shouldn't give up hope.

Sad and poignant

A compelling and interesting read. Be prepared to cry. The tragic characters in this novel are well enhanced by the excellent writing

Quietly subtly engaging

First, big applause for Angus King who lovingly creates all the characters and their many specific accents and tones. Douglas Stuart's writing and characters are lovely. Such a sweet sad portrait of the complicated bond of a mother and child facing the most difficult experiences of life. I don't think I would have gotten as much out of it had I read it myself. Very worthwhile listen.

A great listen for a hard to hear story

The characters are richly drawn. You can almost smell the stale beer and cigarettes of families struggling to get by. This is an audiobook to put on rewind. I love it when you listen to an audiobook and have to say aloud, “no! Don’t do it!” But you carry on to know what comes next.