13 Facts About Shuggie Bain

Shuggie Bain is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020.

Shuggie Bain was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the 2020 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book from the National Book Critics Circle.

Novel opens in 1992, when Hugh "Shuggie" Bain is fifteen years old and living alone in a boarding house in Glasgow.

Shuggie Bain aspires to be a hairdresser while working shifts at a supermarket deli.

In 1981 five-year-old Shuggie is living in a tenement flat in Sighthill with his maternal grandparents, Wullie and Lizzie; his mother, Agnes Bain; his father, Hugh "Shug" Bain; his half-brother, Leek; and his half-sister, Catherine.

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Shuggie Bain's father is mostly absent, working as a cab driver and having affairs with other women.

Meanwhile, Shuggie Bain is bullied at school and in the neighbourhood for not fitting in and for being effeminate.

Shuggie Bain manages to stay off drink completely for a year, during which time she meets a cab driver named Eugene, whom she begins to date.

Shuggie Bain eventually convinces Agnes to drink a glass of wine, and she relapses into alcoholism.

Shuggie Bain makes multiple suicide attempts over the next few years.

Back in 1992 Shuggie Bain gives the tins of fish to his friend Leanne, who gives them to her homeless alcoholic mother.

Shuggie Bain was longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, shortlisted for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize as well as the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.

Shuggie Bain was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books selected by the BBC and The Reading Agency to celebrate Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022.