Five years after winning the Booker for Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart reflects on the pressures of being a prize winner, the queer canon, the politics of dialect, and how the arts have become less accessible for working-class people
Douglas Stuart
Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize in 2020. He was born and raised in Glasgow. Shuggie Bain is his widely acclaimed debut novel
Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York, where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both ‘Debut of the Year’ and ‘Book of the Year’ at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the US National Book Award for Fiction, among many other awards. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times Bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker and his essay on gender, anxiety and class was published by Lit Hub.
John of John was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026.
Video highlights
Shuggie Bain
Winner of The Booker Prize 2020
- Published by
- Picador
Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartbreaking debut is an exploration of the unsinkable love that only children can have for their damaged parents
Other nominated books
John of John is the heartbreaking story of a young man’s return home and how the bonds of family life are torn by the weight of expectation
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Win a copy of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
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Reading guide: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
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An extract from Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
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