Diving into Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart

About Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American who was born in Glassglow, Scotland, before moving to New York later in life to pursue his passion for fashion design and writing. During Stuart's childhood in Glasgow, the city where he grew up, the city was facing a time of hardship that caused many issues within his family life; he says that these times inspired his writing because he often feels himself wishing he could go back to before (PBS News Hour, 1:15). Douglas Stuart is also part of the LGBTQIA+ community, so he said in the PBS interview he never necessarily felt like he fit into the city of Glassglow (PBS News Hour, 2:06). Stuart has also won multiple awards for his writing specifically his first novel Shuggie Bain which was released in 2020 (Stein).

Douglas Stuart's Novels

The first novel discussed in the blog will be Shuggie Bain. Shuggie Bain explores themes like societal expectations, coming of age and trauma, addiction and abandonment, pride and appearances, and lastly sectarianism (Richardson, 2022). This novel focuses on the struggles of a young boy living in Glassglow, Scotland, during the 1990's who ends up being left to become independent at the young age of sixteen after his father leaves; and his mom, who struggles with an alcohol addiction, ends up passing away (Richardson, 2022). The second piece of work being talked about in this blog is Young Mungo, which is Stuart's second novel; this writing explores the relationship between Mungo and James. Mungo is a Protestant and James is a Catholic; the two face many struggles while their relationship shifts from best friends to lovers (Atlantic). Both of these novels are very powerful, and they both explore deep, meaningful themes that are important for readers to see from another perspective. 

The first review I read is written by Pan MacMilan from bookloverssantuary.com. They discuss how great the opening image in Shuggie Bain is and also discuss how nicely Stuart is able to fit poetry into the novel, saying, "Nothing about Stuart's language is wasteful, nothing is forced into an uncomfortable poetry or lyricism" (MacMilan). In this book review, there are many quotes allowing me to see what the author of this review means when they discuss Stuart's opening image and the poetry he includes within Shuggie Bain. The second review I looked at was on Stuart's novel Young Mungo. In this review, written by Ruby Conway from Notabeneprize journal, she discusses how the novel Young Mungo is very similar to Shuggie Bain but discusses how it mainly focuses on a love story, whereas Shuggie Bain didn't."While the novel at first feels very similar to Shuggie Bain - in its setting, focus on alcoholism, the shadowy echoes of Shuggie’s relationship with his mother, the intensely felt local dialect - the novel gradually diverges away from its Booker-winning predecessor as the narrative deepens. If anything, this is more of a love story, containing glimmers of hope in its weighty pages (Conway). After reading both reviews I can understand how some may find these two novels similar because they both do explore some of the same themes like identity and societal expectations and struggles such as alcoholism/addiction. Im really interested in these two novels specifically Shuggie Bain because i'm interested in learning more about Douglas Stuart and his childhood which this book seems to align very closely with.




(1) PBS NewsHour. He Grew up Without Books. Now Douglas Stuart Is an Award-Winning Author. Video, YouTube, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTxVXrpn5ik. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.
(2) “Douglas Stuart | CAA.” Caa.Com, 2020, https://www.caa.com/entertainmenttalent/books/author/douglas-stuart/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

 (3)        Richardson, Maddie. "Shuggie Bain Themes." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 23 Sep 2022. Web. 11 Oct 2026.

(4) Brown, Deedi. “Young Mungo.” Deedi Reads, 30 Mar. 2022, https://deedireads.com/book-reviews/young-mungo. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

(5) View. “Book Review: Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart.” The Book Lovers” Sanctuary, 30 July 2021, https://bookloverssanctuary.com/2021/07/30/book-review-shuggie-bain-douglas-stuart/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

(6) Percival, Sophie. “Review: Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart.” Nota Bene Prize, 21 Aug. 2023, https://www.notabeneprize.com/journal/review-young-mungo-by-douglas-stuart. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.