Young Mungo – The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

Young Mungo is set in a Glasgow shaped by poverty, violence and rigid ideas of masculinity. Mungo and James grow up on opposite sides of a sectarian divide, one Protestant, one Catholic, in neighbouring housing schemes where loyalty is enforced through fear and reputation is earned through brutality.

In this unforgiving environment, their connection is both tender and dangerous. As their feelings deepen, they imagine a life beyond the city’s grey streets and inherited hatreds. Yet every moment together carries risk. Discovery would bring consequences neither of them can safely face.

Written with compassion and restraint, Young Mungo explores love, class and survival in a world that allows little room for vulnerability. From the author of Shuggie Bain, this novel offers a stark and intimate portrait of youth, desire and the cost of being different in modern Scotland.