Manchester Literature Festival is excited to welcome Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, to launch his eagerly anticipated new novel.

Set in Glasgow in the 1990s, Young Mungo is the deeply moving story of the dangerous first love of two young men and their dream to escape the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of the city’s housing estates. Written with the same warmth, dark humour and compassion as Douglas’s debut, Young Mungo is a gripping and powerful novel about the push and pull of family, the painful traps of poverty, addiction and inequality, the dangers of being different, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. His debut novel Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize, the Fiction Debut Award and the overall Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Douglas is currently working on the script for the Television adaptation of Shuggie Bain, to be directed by Stephen Daldry. He will be in conversation with MLF Patron, poet and fellow Glaswegian Jackie Kay.

The event is presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing, Creative Manchester and Waterstones Deansgate. Copies of Young Mungo will be available to collect before the event.

“Few novels are as gutsy and gut-wrenching as Young Mungo in its depiction of a teenage boy who finds love amid family dysfunction, community conflict and the truly terrible predations of adults. Vividly realised and emotionally intense, this scorching novel is an urgent addition to the new canon of unsung stories.” – Bernardine Evaristo

Please note – this event will be at Full Capacity. Masks are no longer mandatory but are encouraged. Please do not attend if you have any symptoms of Covid.

If you have any access needs you want to discuss with the venue, please call the Contact Box Office Monday – Friday between 10am-10pm on 0161 274 0600. Alternatively, you can email them: boxoffice@contactmcr.com