Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart
I read Shuggie in three hours during a sleepless night (in retrospect, it probably exacerbated my insomnia rather than curing it.) This novel is relentless. The setting and situation—a crowded tenement apartment in 1980s Glasgow—is bleak when Shuggie begins, and things get bleaker. And bleaker. And bleaker. If you can stand the emotional flagellation, Shuggie will reward you. The characterization
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