Description
The extraordinary, powerful second novel from the Booker prizewinning author of Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo is both a vivid portrayal of working-class life and the deeply moving story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Bo
rn under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow’s housing estates where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation.
They should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the doocot that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. But the threat of discovery is constant and the punishment unspeakable.
When Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland, with two strange men behind whose drunken banter lie murky pasts, he needs to summon all his inner strength and courage to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future. Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism, Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the meaning of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
Sarah TURNER –
A few chapters in to reading this I messaged a friend who’d also read it and asked if it was just “another Shuggie Bain?” He replied no, it was more than that. And he was totally spot on. To begin this was a story of a poor young boy growing up in poverty with his siblings and alcoholic mother in Glasgow…. but that’s really where the similarités end. This is deeper and darker and more terrifying than Shuggie, and the dark themes stretch far further than in Stuarts Prize winning Shuggie.
Real tension throughout, particularly in the second half, but balanced with a rich cast of totally memorable characters, Stuarts perfect Scottish prose that captures the country so brilliantly.