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Stuart wins Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’

Scottish author Douglas Stuart has won the £50,000 (A$91,100) Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain (Picador), reports the Bookseller.

Stuart’s novel, based on his own childhood, tells the story of a young boy growing up in 1980s Glasgow with a mother who is battling addiction. Stuart, a US-based fashion designer, has said more than 30 editors passed on his debut before it was picked up by Picador.

Chair of judges Margaret Busby said Shuggie Bain was ‘amazingly emotive’ and hard to forget.

Shuggie Bain is destined to be a classic—a moving, immersive and nuanced portrait of a tight-knit social world, its people and its values,’ said Busby. ‘Gracefully and powerfully written, this is a novel that has impact because of its many emotional registers and its compassionately realised characters. Shuggie Bain can make you cry and make you laugh—a daring, frightening and life-changing novel.’

Shuggie Bain was the only book by a UK-born author on the shortlist of six, which was announced in September following the longlist of 13 revealed in July.

 

Category: International news