Young Mungo
The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
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4.3 • 253 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller
A Dua Lipa's Service95 Bookclub selection
'Another beautiful and moving book, a gay Romeo and Juliet set in the brutal world of Glasgow’s housing estates' – The Observer
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, a vivid portrayal of working-class life in 80s Glasgow, 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 as they begin to fall in love, they dream of escape, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him.
But the threat of discovery is constant. When Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in western Scotland with two strange men, he must summon all his inner strength and courage to reach a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.
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.
Young Mungo was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 10/4/22
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in the unrelenting world of 1980s’ Glasgow, Young Mungo is a tearjerking 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 meeting 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 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 unforgiving 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 feels 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.
Customer Reviews
Gripping
Initially I took this book at face value and thought it would be a romance, completely unprepared for the dark themes to come. It starts slow, shifting between the past and present, leading up to Mungo’s fishing trip with some men from his mothers AA meetings. I spent two days reading this book, it was truly captivating and addictive. The last few chapters had me gripped to the pages, at points in tears. Wish I could read this again for the first time.
Raw Emotions
Having grown up in the 60’s and 70’s with a violent, alcoholic stepfather and being the punchbag of an angry, resentful older brother who used me to vent his frustration because he couldn’t understand why our mother wouldn’t take us away from that toxic situation,
made for a miserable childhood.
Young Mungo brought back deeply hidden memories of that childhood and it unearthed raw glimpses of similar desperation, helplessness and unfinished hatred of my own that I never allowed myself to address. Thank you for the insight and creation of a platform for young readers who might find a resemblance of their own misery to come to terms with their sexuality amidst a background of lack of sympathy or love amongst some of these pages and discovering that just maybe, somehow, there is a way out.
I hope this book will find itself on similar heights of appreciation and adoration as Shuggie Bain.
I know I probably shouldn’t do it, but in a way I couldn’t help to find myself thinking of A Clockwork Orange while I was reading Young Mungo. The only difference is that whilst A clockwork Orange is based on a dystopian society we know that in reality Mungo’s experiences are sadly all too real.
Phenomenal
Enjoy the flashes of sunshine. They are all too fleeting.