Douglas Stuart wins Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’
Scottish author Douglas Stuart was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize for his acclaimed debut novel "Shuggie Bain," set in his home city of Glasgow.
The 44-year-old Stuart, who wins 50,000 pounds ($66,000) and is only the second Scot to have won the prestigious literary prize, said he was stunned.
The book, based on his own childhood, tells of a young boy growing up during tough years in Glasgow with a mother who is battling addiction. Stuart's own mother died of alcoholism when he was 16.
In an emotional speech, the 44-year-old said: "My mother would be thrilled, she would be absolutely thrilled and I think she would be proud."
"I think I've been clear that my mother is in every page of this book and without her I wouldn't be here and my work wouldn't be here," he told the award ceremony on Thursday, which had to be mostly held remotely because of a lockdown in England to stop the spread of Covid-19.
"My mother unfortunately suffered with addiction and didn't survive that addiction," he said.
"And so for 30 years I've carried an awful lot of sort of loss and love and pain, and I wanted really just to tell the story of what it was like to grow up queer in Glasgow, to grow up with a parent who you love but you couldn't save."
He described the book as a "love story" looking at the kind of "unconditional, often-tested love" that children can have for flawed parents.
He said that he had carried "a lot of love and pain" and writing the book was "incredibly healing for me."
He also paid tribute to his native city, saying that "growing up in Glasgow I think is one of the greatest inspirations of my life."
Stuart was one of four debut novelists among the six finalists for one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.
Ahead of the announcement, British bookmakers had backed Stuart to claim the prize for the best work of English-language fiction published in the UK and Ireland.
He was chosen as winner from the most diverse shortlist in the prize's five-decade history at a ceremony featuring contributions from former US president Barack Obama and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Past laureates have included celebrated writers from Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes to Kazuo Ishiguro and Roddy Doyle.
Paul Beatty became the first American winner when the Booker bowed to pressure and began including authors from outside the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe in 2013.
This year's finalists also included American Avni Doshi's first novel "Burnt Sugar" alongside fellow US debutants Diane Cook ("The New Wilderness") and Brandon Taylor ("Real Life").
Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga ("This Mournable Body") and Ethiopian-American Maaza Mengiste ("The Shadow King") were the only established authors on the list.
The list was whittled down by a panel of five judges from a US-dominated longlist of 13 finalists, which had included veteran Hilary Mantel.
Margaret Busby, chair of the five 2020 judges, said before announcing the prize that "discovering great literature depends on freeing the imagination, being open to welcoming the new."
"I don't think I'm breaking the rules to say this: please read all the books on the shortlist," she added.
Dangarembga's final volume in her trilogy that started with "Nervous Conditions" chronicles the journey of a young girl from Zimbabwe sinking into poverty.
Mengiste, the first Ethiopian author to make the Booker's shortlist, tells the story of the uprising against the Italian invasion in the 1930s.
"Burnt Sugar" by Doshi explores the complex relationship between an ageing mother and her daughter in contemporary India, while Cook's "The New Wilderness" is a dystopian fiction set in a world made inhospitable by the climate crisis.
Taylor's "Real Life" debut follows an introverted man's experience of racism as he arrives at an American university.