Published: 2020, Picador Genre: Fiction Themes: Glasgow, poverty, alcoholism My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ Shuggie Bain is a novel about love and loyalty and hope. The kind of love that allows young Shuggie to help his alcoholic mother into her good black tights. The kind of loyalty that makes him leap back to her side rather than stay with his traitorous father in a house where he would at least get fed. The kind of hope that keeps him going because maybe one day his beautiful mother will get better and they can both start a new life as normal people. Young as he is, Shuggie quickly learns to do what he has to, rather than what he should do. He doesn't comment on the 'uncles' that come calling on school-day afternoons, dangling the temptation of a few cans of Special Brew that they consider to be fair exchange for a little more than her charming company. He knows when to make himself scarce and not to be a bother, and most importantly, he learns to manage h...