Young Mungo

Author: Douglas Stuart
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 9781529068764
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Selected as one of The Oprah Daily's Best Books of 2022From Booker-prizewinner Douglas Stuart an extraordinary, page-turning second novel, a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James.Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of Glasgow's housing estates. 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 pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they find themselves falling in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo works especially 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 whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need 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 and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in literary fiction, Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA INTERNATIONAL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023PRAISE FOR YOUNG MUNGO'I wasn't sure Young Mungo could live up to Shuggie Bain, but it surpasses it. Deeply harrowing but gently infused with hope & love. And so exquisitely written. It's a joy to watch, in real time, as Douglas Stuart takes his place as one of the greats of Scottish literature.' Nicola Sturgeon'Few novels are as gutsy and gut-wrenching as Young Mungo in its depiction of a teenage boy who finds love amid family dysfunction, community conflict and the truly terrible predations of adults. Vividly realised and emotionally intense, this scorching novel is an urgent addition to the new canon of unsung stories.' Bernardine Evaristo'I can honestly say that the second novel from the author of Shuggie Bain... surpassed my (high) expectations. Stuart makes you care deeply about all of his characters but none more than Mungo, Mo-Maw's beloved, "the softest, sweetest boy she had ever known".' - Bookseller, 'Fiction Book of the Month''Prepare your hearts, for Douglas Stuart is back... Another beautiful and moving book' -Observer'Again this author creates characters so vivid, dilemmas so heart-rending, and dialogue so brilliant that the whole thing sucks you in like a vacuum cleaner... Romantic, terrifying, brutal, tender, and, in the end, sneakily hopeful. What a writer.' - Kirkus Reviews'There are wonderful stories in publishing, but the story of Douglas Stuart is pure magic... With Young Mungo... more magic is all but guaranteed... The book is a literary wonder and a suspenseful page-turner.' - Publishers' Weekly

Young Mungo: The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Author: Douglas Stuart
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1760988871
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Book Description
Selected as one of The Oprah Daily's Best Books of 2022 From Booker-prizewinner Douglas Stuart an extraordinary, page-turning second novel, a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of Glasgow's housing estates. 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 pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they find themselves falling in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo works especially 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 whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need 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 and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in literary fiction, Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA INTERNATIONAL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 PRAISE FOR YOUNG MUNGO 'I wasn't sure Young Mungo could live up to Shuggie Bain, but it surpasses it. Deeply harrowing but gently infused with hope & love. And so exquisitely written. It's a joy to watch, in real time, as Douglas Stuart takes his place as one of the greats of Scottish literature.' Nicola Sturgeon 'Few novels are as gutsy and gut-wrenching as Young Mungo in its depiction of a teenage boy who finds love amid family dysfunction, community conflict and the truly terrible predations of adults. Vividly realised and emotionally intense, this scorching novel is an urgent addition to the new canon of unsung stories.' Bernardine Evaristo 'I can honestly say that the second novel from the author of Shuggie Bain... surpassed my (high) expectations. Stuart makes you care deeply about all of his characters but none more than Mungo, Mo-Maw's beloved, "the softest, sweetest boy she had ever known".' - Bookseller, 'Fiction Book of the Month' 'Prepare your hearts, for Douglas Stuart is back... Another beautiful and moving book' -Observer 'Again this author creates characters so vivid, dilemmas so heart-rending, and dialogue so brilliant that the whole thing sucks you in like a vacuum cleaner... Romantic, terrifying, brutal, tender, and, in the end, sneakily hopeful. What a writer.' - Kirkus Reviews 'There are wonderful stories in publishing, but the story of Douglas Stuart is pure magic... With Young Mungo... more magic is all but guaranteed... The book is a literary wonder and a suspenseful page-turner.' - Publishers' Weekly

Necessary Errors

Author: Caleb Crain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 014312241X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482

Book Description
ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST BOOKS The Wall Street Journal • Slate • Kansas City Star • Flavorwire • Policy Mic • Buzzfeed “Necessary Errors is a very good novel, an enviably good one, and to read it is to relive all the anxieties and illusions and grand projects of one’s own youth.”—James Wood, The New Yorker The exquisite debut novel by the author of Overthrow that brilliantly captures the lives and romances of young expatriates in newly democratic Prague It’s October 1990. Jacob Putnam is young and full of ideas. He’s arrived a year too late to witness Czechoslovakia’s revolution, but he still hopes to find its spirit, somehow. He discovers a country at a crossroads between communism and capitalism, and a picturesque city overflowing with a vibrant, searching sense of possibility. As the men and women Jacob meets begin to fall in love with one another, no one turns out to be quite the same as the idea Jacob has of them—including Jacob himself. Necessary Errors is the long-awaited first novel from literary critic and journalist Caleb Crain. Shimmering and expansive, Crain’s prose richly captures the turbulent feelings and discoveries of youth as it stretches toward adulthood—the chance encounters that grow into lasting, unforgettable experiences and the surprises of our first ventures into a foreign world—and the treasure of living in Prague during an era of historic change.

A Single Man

Author: Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466853344
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Welcome to sunny suburban 1960s Southern California. George is a gay middle-aged English professor, adjusting to solitude after the tragic death of his young partner. He is determined to persist in the routines of his former life. A Single Man follows him over the course of an ordinary twenty-four hours. Behind his British reserve, tides of grief, rage, and loneliness surge—but what is revealed is a man who loves being alive despite all the everyday injustices. When Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man first appeared, it shocked many with its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in maturity. Isherwood's favorite of his own novels, it now stands as a classic lyric meditation on life as an outsider.

The Young Team

Author: Graeme Armstrong
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529017343
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Book Description
The Times top ten bestseller Granta Best of Young British Novelists Scots Book o the Year Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award & Betty Trask Award ‘Trainspotting for a new generation’ – Independent ‘An instant Scottish classic’ – The Skinny 2005. Glasgow is named Europe’s Murder Capital, driven by a violent territorial gang and knife culture. In the housing schemes of adjacent Lanarkshire, Scotland’s former industrial heartland, wee boys become postcode warriors. 2004. Azzy Williams joins the Young Team [YTP]. A brutal gang conflict with their deadly rivals, the Young Toi [YTB] begins. 2012. Azzy dreams of another life. He faces his toughest fight of all – the fight for a different future. Expect Buckfast. Expect bravado. Expect street philosophy. Expect rave culture. Expect anxiety. Expect addiction. Expect a serious facial injury every six hours. Expect murder. Hope for a way out. Inspired by the experiences of its author, Graeme Armstrong, The Young Team is an energetic novel, full of the loyalty, laughs, mischief, boredom, violence and threat of life on these streets. It looks beyond the tabloid stereotypes to tell a powerful story about the realities of life for young people in Britain today. ‘A swaggering, incendiary debut’ – Guardian ‘Dialect that fizzes off the page’ – Observer ‘One of the most admired young voices in British fiction’ – The Times

Shuggie Bain

Author: Douglas Stuart
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529019303
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 501

Book Description
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' AND 'DEBUT OF THE YEAR' AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER 'An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love.' – The judges of the Booker Prize 'Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.' – The Observer 'Shuggie Bain means so much to me. It is such a powerfully written story . . . I love a heartbreak book but there is so much love within this one, particularly between Shuggie and his mother Agnes.' – Dua Lipa It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, her children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place. Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride. For readers of A Little Life and Angela's Ashes, it is a heartbreaking novel by a brilliant writer with a powerful and important story to tell. 'A heartbreaking novel' – The Times 'Tender and unsentimental . . . The Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.' – Daily Mail

Holding the Man

Author: Timothy Conigrave
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
ISBN: 174228406X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
The mid-seventies – and satin baggies and chunky platforms reigned supreme. Jethro Tull did battle with glam-rock for the airwaves. At an all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne, Timothy Conigrave fell wildly and sweetly in love with the captain of the football team. So began a relationship that was to last for 15 years, a love affair that weathered disapproval, separation and, ultimately death. Holding the Man recreates that relationship. With honesty and insight it explores the highs and lows of any partnership: the intimacy, constraints, temptations. And the strength of heart both men had to find when they tested positive to HIV. This is a book as refreshing and uplifting as it is moving; a funny and sad and celebratory account of growing up gay.

Mother's Boy

Author: Patrick Gale
Publisher: Tinder Press
ISBN: 1472257405
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
'Tender, evocative' TLS 'Richly engaging' Spectator A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week 'A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next' Observer 'A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written' Irish Examiner _______ Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow. As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement - even terror - of a love that is as clandestine as his work. _______ 'Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale's devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character' Sydney Morning Herald 'A wonderful novel - a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist' Mail on Sunday 'A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done' The Tablet

In the Absence of Men

Author: Philippe Besson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446485293
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 135

Book Description
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LIE WITH ME It is the summer of 1916 and, with German Zeppelins on the skyline, the men of Paris are off at war. For Vincent, the sixteen-year-old son of a prestigious family, the tranquillity of the city sits at odds with the salons and soirees he attends. But, after an electrifying encounter with the enigmatic writer, Marcel P, draws Vincent’s desires out into the light, his ever-riskier liaisons with a young solider begin to shape Vincent’s future. Translated by Frank Wynne 'A short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth' Independent Elegant novellas-in-translation, VINTAGE EDITIONS celebrate the audacity and ambition of the written word, transporting readers to wherever in the world literary innovation may be found.

Who They Was

Author: Gabriel Krauze
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635577675
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Longlisted for the Booker Prize Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, Time, and CrimeReads Named a Best Book of 2021 by Time An astonishing, visceral autobiographical novel about a young man straddling two cultures: the university where he is studying English Literature and the disregarded world of London gang warfare. The unforgettable narrator of this compelling, thought-provoking debut goes by two names in his two worlds. At the university he attends, he's Gabriel, a seemingly ordinary, partying student learning about morality at a distance. But in his life outside the classroom, he's Snoopz, a hard living member of London's gangs, well-acquainted with drugs, guns, stabbings, and robbery. Navigating these sides of himself, dealing with loving parents at the same time as treacherous, endangering friends and the looming threat of prison, he is forced to come to terms with who he really is and the life he's chosen for himself. In a distinct, lyrical urban slang all his own, author Gabriel Krauze brings to vivid life the underworld of his city and the destructive impact of toxic masculinity. Who They Was is a disturbing yet tender and perspective-altering account of the thrill of violence and the trauma it leaves behind. It is the story of inner cities everywhere, and of the lost boys who must find themselves in their tower blocks.