When we meet him at the start of the novel, Mungo is being sent away on a trip with two men from his mother’s AA group. Mungo himself is only starting to feel out his own definitions: he loves his mother, and forgives her too much he is repulsed by the explosive violence of Hamish and the other men around him, but sees no alternative ways of being a man. Middle sister Jodie is left to look after the family, while the eldest, 18-year-old Hamish, leads the local Protestant gang and is violently insistent on initiating Mungo into his bloody territorial wars against the Catholic boys. His alcoholic mother comes and goes, full of resentment over having children so early in life. Once again Stuart has chosen to roam the housing schemes of working-class Glasgow our guide this time, the sweet, guileless 15-year-old Mungo. To some readers Young Mungo might feel like its predecessor. Naturally the anticipation for his second novel, Young Mungo, is sky-high. Shuggie Bain was one of those miracles of publishing: a book that lived up to the effusive word-of-mouth, beloved by critics and readers alike. In 2020, Scottish author Douglas Stuart became one of just six authors to win the Booker Prize for a first novel. Imagine winning one of the world’s biggest literary awards with your debut.
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