Young Mungo

Young Mungo is a 2022 novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart. It was published by Grove Press on 5 April 2022 and by Picador on 14 April 2022. The novel follows Mungo Hamilton, a teenager navigating a life of poverty and parental neglect in the early 1990s Glasgow. When the character falls in love with a boy named James, he must confront the homophobia, toxic masculinity and religious conflicts of the society of his time. It is Stuart's second novel, following his Booker Prize-winning debut Shuggie Bain (2020). The novel was critically acclaimed and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by publications such as The Washington Post, Time, Reader's Digest, The Telegraph and Vanity Fair. Plot The novel opens with Mungo Hamilton, a 15-year-old Scottish teenager, preparing for a trip with two men who his mother met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, St. Christopher and Gallowgate, who plan to take him fishing to learn how to be a man. Months earlier, Mungo was living at home being cared for by his sister Jodie, with the constant threat of being taken away by social services in the absence of his mother, Maureen. One day, he sees James, a Catholic boy who lives across the street from him and who built a dovecote to raise poultry, through his window. The two become friends and soon develop a romance, which becomes their first relationship that does not involve constant acts of violence. James reveals to Mungo that he is planning to leave home, but Mungo asks him to wait until he turns 16 so he can go with him. Mungo's older brother Hamish calls him and forces him to come to a fight against Catholics from another neighborhood, even though James asked him not to. Mungo does not hit anyone but ends up badly wounded, deciding to look for James to ask him to leave together without waiting any longer. However, Hamish finds them together, so he attempts to murder James by setting him on fire. Mungo intervenes and Hamish takes him back home, where he tells their mother what happened. Maureen is horrified by the possibility that Mungo is gay, so she plans the fishing trip with which the novel opens. During the fishing trip, Mungo is worried about St. Christopher and Gallowgate, particularly as he realises that they have both recently been in prison. On the second night, the men get drunk and rape Mungo, who realises they were imprisoned for child molestation. The next day, Mungo goes fishing with St.