Shuggie Bain

The enduring tale of Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a kind and solitary young man who grows up in dilapidated public housing in Glasgow, Scotland during the 1980s, is told in Shuggie Bain. Husbands and sons are unemployed as a result of Thatcher's policies, and the city's infamous drug epidemic is just around the corner.

Agnes, Shuggie's mother, is a hardship to him and his siblings but also serves as a beacon of guidance. She flips through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, purchasing a little happiness on credit, anything to make her gloomy existence more colourful, and dreams of a home with its own front door. Married to a philandering cab driver, Agnes maintains her pride via appearances; her makeup, beehive, and flawless fake teeth provide a glamorous picture of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. However, behind the surface, Agnes is becoming more and more reliant on alcohol. She spends the majority of the family's weekly income—all that's left over—on extra-strong beer cans that are tucked into purses and filled with tea cups.

Agnes's elder children find their own means of separating from their mother, leaving Shuggie to take care of her as she alternates between periods of heavy drinking and abstinence. While all of this is going on, Shuggie is trying valiantly to turn into the typical kid that he so much wants to be, but everyone has realised that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that only he knows about. Agnes is a devoted mother to her son, but her addiction threatens to overshadow everyone in her life, even her beloved Shuggie.

Shuggie Bain is a devastating tale of love, sensuality, and addiction. It is a remarkable representation of a working-class family that is seldom seen in literature. It is a remarkable novelist's blazing debut, evoking the work of Edouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, with a significant and compelling narrative to tell.