

Young Mungo
Books | Family & Relationships / Marriage & Long-Term Relationships
4.6
(309)
Douglas Stuart
From Booker-prizewinner Douglas Stuart an extraordinary, page-turning second novel, a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of Glasgow's housing estates. 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 pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they find themselves falling in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo works especially 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 whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need 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 and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in literary fiction, Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
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More Details:
Author
Douglas Stuart
Pages
400
Publisher
Pan Macmillan
Published Date
2022
ISBN
1529068762 9781529068764
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"Wow. I just finished Young Mungo right now and I can’t believe the story is done. I feel sad I can’t live through Mungo’s experiences anymore but at the same time, I don’t want to experience them again either. It was written beautifully; it has you going through different waves of emotions. Jodie surprised me at the end, they all did, except Mo-Maw. Mungo is my favorite character, and so is Poor-Wee-Chickie. I give this book a 5/5 in stars. Would I read it again? No. I wouldn’t read it again because of how it made me feel. You will have moments where you want to laugh, cry, scream, squeal, etc. At times I wanted to throw the book and patch it up again. It truly is an amazing story that draws you in. It’s going on the favorites list."
"My friend and I did a book swap, my favorite book for their favorite book. I was handed young mungo, I finished the whole thing in one week. This book is so dear to me. I can relate to mungo in many ways and I love the writing style. This book immediately shot up to a favorite of mine. <3"
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Francis Linenberg
"This is my all time favorite book. It’s written so well and got me so emotional. "
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AJ
"This was my first Stuart book and I really liked it. This book was intensely difficult at times but I'm still glad I read the story. The character growth although traumatic af was taken into very deep consideration . I would like to read more from Stuart in the future to come."
"I really really enjoyed this book, well written
Well developed characters. A beautiful story of love , though not conventional. Taking place in a time where men were men, had to be tough and fight to survive. This character though you will love and empathize for .
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K C
Karen C
"I know this was a really excellent book, but I didn't enjoy reading it. It was gorgeously written and so hard to get through. I found myself f inot wanting to know what was going to happen next because it was always so painful, kind of like "A Little Life." On paper, the concept is extremely similar to Shuggie Bain (an impoverished Scottish family, a mess of a mom, an ~unusual~ son, a daughter who takes care of everything) which I also put off reading because I knew it would be upsetting, as great works often are. But I also recognize that this is an artistic masterpiece. Douglas Stuart is such a force who has somehow only written two books and still achieved modern classic status in my mind. A note for potential readers, the dialogue is written in Scottish dialect and it was a bit hard to read at first as a silly American, but it does get easier. At some points, the narration felt a bit forced — just saying Mungo's thoughts out loud — but it always resulted in beautiful sentences. I'm glad I read it.<br/><br/>Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review."