BOOKER PRIZE 2020

DOUGLAS STUART

Scottish writer Douglas Stuart has won the 2020  Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain.

Based on his own childhood,  Doughlas  Stuart described a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 1980’s  with a mother battling addiction and poverty in the novel.

Douglas Stuart dedicated the book to his own mother, who died of alcoholism.

“Part of the reason Shuggie is queer is because I am queer and I grew up in Glasgow. I also like the balance Shuggie offered to Agnes because it’s really about how these two are receding from the world, and how they cling to each other and rely on each other,” Douglas Stuart said.

The Booker Prize is considered one of the leading prizes for literary fiction written in English. It is awarded for the best original novel written in English and published in the UK.

The prize was originally established in 1969 as the Booker – McConnell Prize after the company Booker McConnel Ltd. Originally the prize money was 21,000 Pound and later in 2002 it was raised to 50,000 Pound under the sponsorship of the Man Group, making it one of the richest literary prizes.