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In Young Mungo, the second novel from Douglas Stuart after his Booker Prize-winning 2020 debut Shuggie Bain, a burgeoning secret love between two young Scottish men is threatened by the harsh realities of their working class community. Stuart’s story centers on Mungo and James, two friends turned lovers from different religious backgrounds who must hide their relationship from their families and their peers in their Glasgow neighborhood, where the code of masculinity is as narrow as it is strict. Adding to their adversity is Mungo’s turbulent home life, where he fields abuse from his mother and observes his brother’s actions as the leader of a local gang. —Cady Lang
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