“An extraordinary marionette of a woman, or was it a man? It wore grey flannel trousers, a wide leather belt, masculine overcoat, and a man’s brown felt hat, and had a really frightening appearance.”
Subscription Notification
We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Please update your billing details here
Please update your billing information
The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your subscription.
Your subscription will end shortly
Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your access to the most informative and considered journalism in the UK.
Gladys Deacon: How botched beauty treatment forced her into hiding goldcoastbulletin.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goldcoastbulletin.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize
The critics’ top eight choices based on Christmas selections in national newspapers, the London Evening Standard, the TLS, The Spectator and the New Statesman. Plus, we take a look at some of the other best books which were released in 2020.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The winner of this year’s Booker Prize is a tale of poverty, addiction and abuse set in and around Glasgow in the 1980s. Shuggie Bain’s mother is an alcoholic; his father, a violent, fitfully present taxi driver. As family members drift away, he becomes his mother’s sole carer – and it is their relationship that forms the novel’s emotional core. First-time author Douglas Stuart was praised for his poetic, slang-studded prose, and for his ability to find good in his characters, no matter how despicable their behaviour. Some critics, however, thought the book would have benefited from more rigorous editing.