Young Mungo
A Novel
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4.4 • 22 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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"Young Mungo seals it: Douglas Stuart is a genius." —The Washington Post
From the Booker Prize-winning 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.
Born 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 dovecote 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in the macho world of 1980s Glasgow, Young Mungo is a tear-jerking tale of queer love blooming in the most unexpected of places. Raised in a Protestant family with a gang leader brother and an absent, alcoholic mother, the soft and sensitive 15-year-old Mungo is a total misfit. But after he meets kindred spirit James, a Catholic boy who loves raising pigeons, an unlikely relationship blossoms between them in spite of their religious differences (not to mention society’s prejudices). Author Douglas Stuart (whose Shuggie Bain won the Man Booker Prize in 2020) paints a formidable portrait of working-class life in Thatcher-era Scotland, with crisp writing that captures every detail of Mungo’s hardscrabble existence. In one scene where Mungo is sent away to “man up” on a fishing trip, Stuart captures his emotions in particularly exquisite detail, with every gesture and vocal tic telling us something about his character. Keep some tissues handy—this coming-of-age romance is destined to become an iconic work of 21st-century literature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The astonishing sophomore effort from Booker Prize winner Stuart (Shuggie Bain) details a teen's hard life in north Glasgow in the post-Thatcher years. Mungo is 15, the youngest of three Protestant siblings growing up in one of the city's poverty-stricken "schemes." The children's alcoholic mother leaves them periodically for a married man with children of his own. Mungo's father is long gone, and Mungo's sister, Jodie, looks after their household as best she can. Hamish, Mungo's hooligan brother and ringleader of a gang of Protestant Billy Boys, is a constant threat to Mungo, who, tender of heart and profoundly lonely, is at the mercy of his violent moods. Even after Mungo meets the kindred James, a Catholic boy who keeps pigeons, he is overwhelmed by his self-loathing, assuming all the calamity around him is somehow his fault. He doesn't have a clue what it is he wants. All he knows is that amid the blood and alcohol and spittle-sprayed violence of his daily existence, James is a gentle, calming respite. Their friendship is the center of this touching novel, but it also leads to a terrifying and tragic intervention. Stuart's writing is stellar—a man's voice sounds "like he had a throatful of dry toast"; a boy has "ribs like the hull of an upturned boat." He's too fine a storyteller to go for a sentimental ending, and the final act leaves the reader gutted. This is unbearably sad, more so because the reader comes to cherish the characters their creator has brought to life. It's a sucker punch to the heart.
