Young Mungo
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 they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the dovecote that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work 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 behind whose drunken banter lie murky pasts, he needs 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, Douglas Stuart’s *Young Mungo* is a gripping and reveal
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What you might want to know about Young Mungo
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
On the East End of 1990s Glasgow, fifteen-year-old Mungo Hamilton lives with his alcoholic mother Mo-Maw and his older sister Jodie, and his older brother Hamish runs a Protestant gang.
Yes. Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is his second novel, following his Booker Prize-winning Shuggie Bain. It is a separate story but covers similar Glasgow working-class territory.
Yes. It contains sectarian violence and graphic sexual assault. It is not light reading.
Young Mungo was written by Douglas Stuart, published in 2022 by Alfred A. Knopf Canada.
Young Mungo is 424 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Young Mungo takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Young Mungo is a standalone novel by Douglas Stuart, not part of a series.
Young Mungo is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.