#3 in Literary fiction
Shuggie Bain
- 538
- Pages
- about 10 h
- Reading time
- Booker Prize
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Our view
“Shuggie Bain” is a dark, moving debut about a boy growing up beside his alcoholic mother in post-industrial Glasgow in the 1980s. Douglas Stuart stays with Shuggie, the youngest of three children, and with Agnes for more than five hundred pages, a family novel as much as a coming-of-age story. Some readers find it tedious at that length and say it told them little they did not already know.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Shuggie Bain is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020. It tells the story of the youngest of three children, Shuggie, growing up with his alcoholic mother Agnes in 1980s post-industrial working-class Glasgow, Scotland.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 289 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 66% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Literary fiction average of 8.1. That is how 8.5 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.4 | 15 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 8.5 | 274 | 95% |
Frequently asked
How long is Shuggie Bain?
It has 538 pages — longer than 79% of the ranked books in Literary fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Literary fiction — with scores between 8.3 and 8.7, closest to this book.
