"A hero is anyone who does what he can" Romain Roilland ended up pointing out with all the wisdom in the world. But there is little that we think a child can do to regain his childhood. Because losing a descendant is unnatural while losing a parent too early is something that denatures.
In this story, a mother is lost in that labyrinth of self-destruction, of perdition as necessary oblivion. No one is the one to tell Agnes that she should lift her head and take her life back, like a cheap session of Self Help. No one except a stubborn son whose hope is capable of achieving that minimum and that maximum of doing, at least, what he can ...
In the early eighties, Glasgow is dying: a once prosperous mining town is now plagued by Thatcher's policies, pushing families into unemployment and discouragement. Agnes Bain is a beautiful and unlucky woman who always dreamed of achieving a better life: a beautiful house and happiness that did not have to pay in installments.
When her husband, an expansive taxi driver and womanizer, abandons her for another, Agnes finds herself alone in the care of three children in a neighborhood mired in misery and disappointment, sinking deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of drink. Her children will do their best to save her, but, forced themselves to get ahead, they will end up surrendering one by one. All except Shuggie, the youngest son, the only one who refuses to give in, the one who with his unconditional love keeps Agnes afloat.
Shuggie, a sensitive, mannered, and somewhat rebellious child, is mortified that miners´ children laugh at him and that adults call him "different" but stubborn as he is, he is also convinced that if he tries hard to the maximum he will be able to be as "normal" as the other boys and will be able to help his mother escape from this hopeless place. Winner of the prestigious Booker Award, Shuggie Bain's Story is a tender and devastating novel about poverty and the limits of love, a narrative that, with its compassionate look at a woman's painful struggle against addiction, frustration and loneliness, stands as a moving tribute to unwavering faith of a son determined to save his mother at all costs.
You can now buy the novel "History of Shuggie Bain", from Douglas stuart, here:
