Lit with Liberate: Young Mungo

JOIN THE LIT WITH LIBERATE READING GROUP

Lit with Liberate will meet in August to discuss Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart. Multiple copies are available to borrow, please email Beth at [email protected] to reserve yours. 

Come along for pizza, drinks and book chat in the Rowswell Room on the second floor. Zoom attendance possible, please let us know if you want to take part this way and we’ll send you the details. No booking required. If you haven’t read the book but want to come along for a taster of the book group, please do!  

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow's housing estates, where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation. They should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the doocot that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold.

But the threat of discovery is constant and the punishment unspeakable. When Mungo's mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in western Scotland with two strange men behind whose drunken banter lie murky pasts, he needs to summon all his inner strength and courage to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism, Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the meaning of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.