Shuggie Bain

by Douglas Stuart, Hugo Gonçalves (Translator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The story of a working-class family getting by in 1980s Glasgow, Scotland as seen through the eyes of the on-the-fringes, lonely son Hugh "Shuggie" Bain. Gritty, dark and, at times, downright depressing, this novel isn't afraid of shying away from the trials and tribulations of a truly difficult life and a family love that transcends the pain and heartache that come along with it.

Romance de estreia do autor escocês Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain foi o grande vencedor do Man Booker Prize, um dos mais reputados prémios literários internacionais. Uma história comovente sobre o heroísmo e os limites do amor. Livro do Ano nos British Book Awards * Finalista do National Book Award Finalista do Orwell Prize * Finalista do Pen Hemingway Award * Finalista do Kirkus Prize Plano Nacional de Leitura Literatura - Maiores de 18 anos 1981, Glasgow. A outrora próspera cidade mineira sufoca sob o jugo férreo das políticas de Margaret Thatcher, lançando milhares de famílias para a miséria. A epidemia do álcool e das drogas aproveita para capturar os mais vulneráveis. Agnes Bain esperava mais da vida. Sonha com uma casa só sua e folheia catálogos de compras a crédito, na vã tentativa de alegrar a existência precária a que fica condenada quando o marido, um taxista mulherengo, a abandona, sem emprego e com três filhos. Com cabelos negros sedosos e ondulados, maquilhagem esmerada e dentes falsos perfeitos, parece a Elizabeth Taylor de Glasgow, mas, por baixo da aparência orgulhosa, as malhas do vício enredam Agnes, que mês após mês gasta o abono de família em latas de cerveja e maços de tabaco. Os filhos fazem o melhor que podem para cuidar de si e da mãe, mas, um a um, vêem-se obrigados a abandonar a casa materna, para tentar pelo menos salvar-se. Fica Shuggie, o mais novo, que adora a mãe e não perde a esperança de a salvar. Mas, aos oito anos, o rapaz tem a sua própria luta pessoal para travar: delicado, sensível, comporta-se como um príncipe e destoa da dureza da escola e das ruas devassadas pela pobreza. Anseia apenas ser normal e encaixar, mas é o último a perceber que carrega um segredo e nunca poderá ser igual aos outros. Com ecos de autores como Frank McCourt, D. H. Lawrence e James Joyce, Shuggie Bain é um magnífico romance de estreia de um autor que tem uma história importante para contar, inspirada na sua própria. Uma história dilacerante de dependência, carência e afecto, um retrato épico de uma cidade, um quadro íntimo de uma família destroçada e, sobretudo, uma extraordinária história de amor. Os elogios da crítica: «É um livro desafiante, íntimo, envolvente, corajoso. Acredito que todos os que o lerem nunca mais se sentirão da mesma forma.» Margaret Busby, presidente do Júri do Booker Prize «Deixa-nos destroçados e a pensar: a vida pode ser curta, mas demora uma eternidade.» Leah Hager Cohen, The New York Times «Um romance de estreia que é uma obra-prima.» Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post «Um romance que disseca o coração humano… com cenas realistas de amor, perda, sobrevivência e tristeza.» Scott Simon, NPR «Douglas Stuart escreveu um primeiro romance de uma beleza rara e duradoura.» Alex Preston, The Guardian «Shuggie Bain é um romance que quer chegar ao coração e consegue. Uma excelente estreia.» John Self, The Times «O talento de Stuart é tal, que a sua história - dolorosa, por vezes lancinante - consegue, muitas vezes, ser bela.» Barbara Lane, San Francisco Chronicle «A qualidade evocativa do livro nasce da capacidade do autor para criar um lugar, um tempo e a textura da emoção. Este é um livro duro, triste, mas brilhantemente escrito, que compensa o sofrimento que a sua leitura implica.» Katherine A. Powers, Newsday «Um clássico instantâneo. Faz pensar em D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce… Um feito literário.» Washington Independent Review of Books «A verdade emocional contida neste livro vai partir-lhe o coração. Nunca esquecerá Shuggie Bain. Cena após cena, este livro é uma obra-prima.» Kirkus Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789897844669
Publisher:	ALFAGUARA
Publication date:	11/29/2021
Sold by:	PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE GRUPO EDITORIAL
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	792 KB
Language:	Portuguese

About the Author

Douglas Stuart nasceu e cresceu em Glasgow, na Escócia. Formou-se no Royal College of Art, em Londres, e é doutor honoris causa pela Heriot Watt University, em Edimburgo. Em 2000, mudou-se para Nova Iorque, onde começoua trabalhar em design de moda. Tem escrito ficção e ensaio em publicações como a New Yorker e o Literary Hub.

Shuggie Bain, o seu primeiro romance - publicado em Portugal também na Alfaguara -, recebeu, em 2020, o Booker Prize, um dos mais importantes prémios literários de língua inglesa, e foi eleito Livro do Ano nos British Book Awards, além de ter sido finalista de muitos outros prémios de prestígio. Está traduzido em trinta e oito idiomas. Um lugar para Mungo é o seu segundo romance.

www.douglasdstuart.com

Douglas Stuart nasceu e cresceu em Glasgow, na Escócia. Formou-se no Royal College of Art, em Londres, e é doutor honoris causa pela Heriot Watt University, em Edimburgo. Em 2000, mudou-se para Nova Iorque, onde começoua trabalhar em design de moda. Tem escrito ficção e ensaio em publicações como a New Yorker e o Literary Hub.

Shuggie Bain, o seu primeiro romance - publicado em Portugal também na Alfaguara -, recebeu, em 2020, o Booker Prize, um dos mais importantes prémios literários de língua inglesa, e foi eleito Livro do Ano nos British Book Awards, além de ter sido finalista de muitos outros prémios de prestígio. Está traduzido em trinta e oito idiomas. Um lugar para Mungo é o seu segundo romance.

www.douglasdstuart.com

Hugo Gonçalves (1976) é autor de vários romances.

Na Companhia das Letras, estão publicados Deus Pátria Família (semifinalista do prémio Oceanos), Filho da mãe (finalista dos prémios P.E.N. Clube e Fernando Namora) e O coração dos homens.

Revolução , um drama familiar que acompanhamos desde o fim do Estado Novo até aos conturbados tempos do PREC, é o seu romance que mais recente. Foi considerado por Miguel Real, escritor e crítico do JL, como um dos melhores romances de 2023.

Guionista da série Rabo de Peixe (Netflix), foi correspondente de diversas publicações portuguesas em Nova Iorque, Madrid e no Rio de Janeiro, cidade onde trabalhou como editor literário.

Jornalista premiado e cronista, é um dos criadores do podcast «Sem barbas na língua».

Editorial Reviews

11/18/2019

Stuart’s harrowing debut follows a family ravaged by addiction in Glasgow during the Thatcher era. Agnes Bain yearns to move Shug, her taxi-driving, “selfish animal” of a second husband, and three children out of the tiny apartment they share with her parents in Glasgow in 1981. Shug secures them a council flat, but when they arrive he leaves them in a flurry of violence, blaming Agnes’s drinking. While Agnes’s daughter, Catherine, escapes the misery of Agnes’s alcoholism and the family’s extreme poverty by finding a husband, and her older son, Leek, retreats into making art, Hugh (nicknamed “Shuggie” after his absent father) assumes responsibility for Agnes’s safety and happiness. As the years pass, Shuggie suffers cruelty over his effeminate personality and endures sexual violence. He eventually accepts that he’s gay; meanwhile, Agnes finds some hope by entering A.A., landing a job, and dating another taxi driver named Eugene, but she later backslides. As Shuggie and his mother attempt to improve their lives, they are bound not just by one another but also to the U.K.’s dire economic conditions. While the languid pace could have benefited from condensing, there are flashes of deep feeling that cut through the darkness. This bleak if overlong book will resonate with readers. Agent: Anna Stein, ICM Partners. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Shuggie Bain:

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction
Finalist for the National Book Award
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
Finalist for the L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction
Named the Best Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2021
Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize
The Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2020
Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award
Named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, NPR, TIME, BuzzFeed, the Economist, the Times (UK), the Independent (UK), the Daily Telegraph (UK), Barnes & Noble, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, and the Washington Independent Review of Books

“We were bowled over by this first novel, which creates an amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love. The book gives a vivid glimpse of a marginalized, impoverished community in a bygone era of British history. It’s a desperately sad, almost-hopeful examination of family and the destructive powers of desire.” —Booker Prize Judges

“This year’s breakout debut . . . It has drawn comparisons to D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and Frank McCourt.” —Alexandra Alter, New York Times

“I’m really, really stunned by it. It’s so good. I think it’s the best first book I’ve read in many years . . . It’s a heartbreaking story, and quite hard to read at times, but it’s almost like it’s uplifting on behalf of literature. And it’s written with great warmth and compassion for the characters.” —Karl Ove Knausgaard, Guardian

“The body—especially the body in pain—blazes on the pages of Shuggie Bain . . . This is the world of Shuggie Bain, a little boy growing up in Glasgow in the 1980s. And this is the world of Agnes Bain, his glamorous, calamitous mother, drinking herself ever so slowly to death. The wonder is how crazily, improbably alive it all is . . . The book would be just about unbearable were it not for the author’s astonishing capacity for love. He’s lovely, Douglas Stuart, fierce and loving and lovely. He shows us lots of monstrous behavior, but not a single monster—only damage. If he has a sharp eye for brokenness, he is even keener on the inextinguishable flicker of love that remains . . . The book leaves us gutted and marveling: Life may be short, but it takes forever.” —Leah Hager Cohen, New York Times Book Review

“A debut novel that reads like a masterpiece.” —Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post

“A novel that cracks open the human heart, brings you inside, tears you up, and brings you up, with its episodes of unvarnished love, loss, survival and sorrow.” —Scott Simon, NPR’s “Weekend Edition”

“Agnes Bain [is] the unforgettable human train wreck at the center of Douglas Stuart’s novel Shuggie Bain . . . Titling the novel after Shuggie rather than the woman who dominates him seems like a small gesture of defiance on Mr. Stuart’s part . . . Mr. Stuart vividly inhabits the city’s singular ‘Weegie’ dialect and vocabulary . . . It’s the obstinate Bain pride that prevents this novel from becoming a wallow in victimhood and gives it its ruined dignity.” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“The domestic spaces, the blighted landscape, the meanness of people, the bullying at school, the constant threat of violence, all add up to a picture of misery. Against this, however, there is an undercurrent that becomes more and more powerful, as Stuart, with great subtlety, builds up an aura of tenderness in the relationship between helpless Shuggie and his even more helpless mother . . . By drawing Agnes and Shuggie with so much texture, he makes clear that neither mother nor son can be easily seen as a victim. Instead, they emerge forcefully; they are fully, palpably present.” —Colm Tóibín, Bookforum

“Astonishingly good, one of the most moving novels in recent memory.” —Hillary Kelly, Los Angeles Times

“The tough portraits of Glaswegian working-class life from William McIlvanney, James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, and Agnes Owens can be felt in Shuggie Bain without either overshadowing or unbalancing the novel . . . Stuart’s capacity for allowing wild contradictions to convincingly coexist is also on display in the individual vignettes that comprise the novel, blending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating. He can even pull off all of them in a single sentence . . . This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.” —James Walton, New York Review of Books

“Rarely does a debut novel establish its world with such sure-footedness, and Stuart’s prose is lithe, lyrical, and full of revelatory descriptive insights . . . Reading Shuggie Bain entails a kind of archaeology, sifting through the rubble of the lives presented to find gems of consolation, brief sublime moments when the characters slip the bonds of their hardscrabble existence. That the book is never dismal or maudlin, notwithstanding its subject matter, is down to the buoyant life of its two principal characters, the heart and humanity with which they are described. Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.” —Alex Preston, Guardian

“Douglas Stuart drags us through the 1980s childhood of ‘a soft boy in a hard world’ in a series of vivid, effective scenes . . . Shuggie Bain is a novel that aims for the heart and finds it. As a novel it’s good, as a debut very good, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it progress from Booker longlist to shortlist.” —John Self, Times (UK)

“Not only does [Stuart] clearly know his characters, he clearly loves them . . . Stuart describes their life with compassion and a keen ear for language . . . Such is Stuart’s talent that this painful, sometimes excruciating story is often quite beautiful.” —Barbara Lane, San Francisco Chronicle

“Shuggie Bain is Douglas Stuart’s first novel, as intense and excruciating to read as any novel I have ever held in my hand . . . This novel is as much about Glasgow as it is about Shuggie and his impossible mother . . . The book’s evocative power arises out of the author’s talent for conjuring a place, a time, and the texture of emotion, and out of its language which is strewn with a Glaswegian argot sodden with desolation and misery . . . This is a hard, grim book, brilliantly written and, in the end, worth the pain which accompanies reading it.” —Katherine A. Powers, Newsday

“With his exquisitely detailed debut novel, Douglas Stuart has given Glasgow something of what James Joyce gave to Dublin. Every city needs a book like Shuggie Bain, one where the powers of description are so strong you can almost smell the chip-fat and pub-smoke steaming from its pages, and hear the particular, localized slang ringing in your ears . . . It turns over the ugly side of humanity to find the softness and the beauty underneath . . . This beauty, against all odds, survives.” —Eliza Gearty, Jacobin

“An atmospheric epic set in 1980s working-class Glasgow, Shuggie Bain, a debut novel by Douglas Stuart, focuses on the relationship between a mother and son as she battles alcoholism and he grapples with his sexuality. It’s a formidable story, lyrically told, about intimacy, family, and love.” —Elle

“A dysfunctional love story—an interdependence whose every attempt to thrive is poisoned whenever a drink is poured—but here, between a boy and his mother. Stuart’s debut stands out for its immersion into working-class Glaswegian life, but what makes his book a worthy contender for the Booker is his portrayal of their bond, together with all its perpetual damage.” —Maria Crawford, Financial Times

“Magnificent . . . Its richly rendered events will give you a lot to talk about.” —O Magazine

“This is a panoramic portrait of both a family and a place, and Stuart steeps us fully in the grim decline of the Thatcher years: cheap booze, closed pits and lives lived on tick . . . Tender and unsentimental—a rare trick—and the Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie, when he does take the floor, leaps off the page.” —Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

“Terrifically engrossing . . . A cracking coming-of-age story—a survivor’s tale you won’t be able to put down.” —Anthony Cummins, Metro

“A heartbreaking story about identity, addiction, and abandonment.” —TIME

“An instant classic. A novel that takes place during the Thatcher years and, in a way, defines it. A novel that explores the underbelly of Scottish society. A novel that digs through the grit and grime of 1980s Glasgow to reveal a story that is at once touching and gripping. Think D.H. Lawrence. Think James Joyce . . . A literary tour de force.” —Washington Independent Review of Books

“Douglas’s sharp narrative perspective moves from character to character, depicting each internally and externally with astute grace, giving a complex understanding of the dynamics of the Bain family . . . Shuggie Bain is a master class in depicting the blinding dedications of love and the endless bounds to which people will go to feel in control, to feel better. It hopefully sets the tone for more beautifully devastating works of fiction to follow from Stuart in the future.” —Columbia Journal

“Heartfelt and harrowing . . . [A] visceral, emotionally nuanced portrayal of working class Scottish life and its blazingly intimate exploration of a mother-son relationship.” —Literary Hub

“The way Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting carved a permanent place in our heads and hearts for the junkies of late-1980s Edinburgh, the language, imagery, and story of fashion designer Stuart’s debut novel apotheosizes the life of the Bain family of Glasgow . . . The emotional truth embodied here will crack you open. You will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece.” —Kirkus Review (starred review)

“Compulsively readable . . . In exquisite detail, the book describes the devastating dysfunction in Shuggie’s family, centering on his mother’s alcoholism and his father’s infidelities, which are skillfully related from a child’s viewpoint . . . As it beautifully and shockingly illustrates how Shuggie ends up alone, this novel offers a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Very highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Douglas Stuart’s anxious novel is both a tragedy and a survival story. Shuggie is as neglected as Glasgow, but through his mother’s demise, he discovers his strength. Shuggie Bain celebrates taking charge of one’s own destiny.” —BookPage

“Stuart’s harrowing debut follows a family ravaged by addiction in Glasgow during the Thatcher era . . . There are flashes of deep feeling that cut through the darkness . . . Will resonate with readers.” —Publishers Weekly

“There’s no way to fake the life experience that forms the bedrock of Douglas Stuart’s wonderful Shuggie Bain. No way to fake the talent either. Shuggie will knock you sideways.” —Richard Russo, author of Chances Are

“Every now and then a novel comes along that feels necessary and inevitable. I’ll never forget Shuggie and Agnes or the incredibly detailed Glasgow they inhabit. This is the rare contemporary novel that reads like an instant classic. I’ll be thinking and talking about Shuggie Bain—and teaching it—for quite some time.” —Garrard Conley, New York Times-bestselling author of Boy Erased

“A rare and haunting ode to 1980s Glasgow and its struggling communities, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a collapsing family that is lashed together by love alone. Douglas Stuart writes with startling, searing intimacy. I fell hard for these characters; when they have nothing left, they cling maddeningly—irresistibly—to humor, pride and hope.” —Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing

“Shuggie Bain is an intimate and frighteningly acute exploration of a mother-son relationship and a masterful portrait of alcoholism in Scottish working class life, rendered with old-school lyrical realism. Stuart is a writer who genuinely loves his characters and makes them unforgettable and touching even when they're at their worst. He’s also just a beautiful writer; I kept being reminded of Joyce’s Dubliners. I loved this book.” —Sandra Newan, author of The Heavens

“A dark shining work. Raw, formidable, bursting with tenderness and frailty. The effect is remarkable, it will make you cry.” —Karl Geary, author of Montpelier Parade

From the Publisher

Scotsman Angus King is a natural choice to narrate this chronicle of Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a boy growing up in 1980s Glasgow. King's thick Scottish accent is evocative of the setting, and his vivid characterizations of both male and female characters of all ages aid with differentiation of their colorful personalities. Narrating with both whimsy and gravitas, King captures Shuggie’s rough life, sensitively depicting his gentle nature, as well as his struggles with his beleaguered alcoholic mother, Agnes, as she sinks further into addiction. King’s relaxed pacing fosters the progression of the story while acclimating listeners’ ears to his Scottish accent. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

★ 2019-10-14
Alcoholism brutally controls the destiny of a beautiful woman and her children in working-class Scotland.

The way Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting carved a permanent place in our heads and hearts for the junkies of late-1980s Edinburgh, the language, imagery, and story of fashion designer Stuart's debut novel apotheosizes the life of the Bain family of Glasgow. Stunning, raven-haired Agnes Bain is often compared to Elizabeth Taylor. When we meet her in 1981, she's living with her parents and three "weans" in a crowded high-rise flat in a down-and-out neighborhood called Sighthill. Her second husband, Hugh "Shug" Bain, father of her youngest, Shuggie, is a handsome taxi driver with a philandering problem that is racing alongside Agnes' drinking problem to destroy their never-very-solid union. In indelible, patiently crafted vignettes covering the next 11 years of their lives, we watch what happens to Shuggie and his family. Stuart evokes the experience of each character with unbelievable compassion—Agnes; her mother, Lizzie; Shug; their daughter, Catherine, who flees the country the moment she can; artistically gifted older son Leek; and the baby of the family, Shuggie, bullied and outcast from toddlerhood for his effeminate walk and manner. Shuggie's adoration of his mother is the light of his life, his compass, his faith, embodied in his ability to forgive her every time she resurrects herself from a binge: "She was no use at maths homework, and some days you could starve rather than get a hot meal from her, but Shuggie looked at her now and understood this was where she excelled. Everyday with the make-up on and her hair done, she climbed out of her grave and held her head high. When she had disgraced herself with drink, she got up the next day, put on her best coat, and faced the world. When her belly was empty and her weans were hungry, she did her hair and let the world think otherwise." How can love be so powerful and so helpless at the same time? Readers may get through the whole novel without breaking down—then read the first sentence of the acknowledgements and lose it. The emotional truth embodied here will crack you open.

You will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece.

Kirkus Reviews