BFL45 - Douglas Stuart

Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart, (Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo), talks to Max Porter about his latest novel. Set in a tight-knit Hebridean community, John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the compromises made for love, the lies people tell in order to survive and the cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow but now lives in New York. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. In 2025 it was picked by The Sunday Times as one of the best novels of the 21st century. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a No1 Sunday Times best seller.

Max Porter is the author of four novels, including the Sunday Times #1 bestseller Shy, the Booker Prize-longlisted Lanny, and the multi-award winning Grief is the Thing with Feathers. His work has been translated into 35 languages. Porter’s screen adaptation of Shy, called Steve, starring Cillian Murphy, was released by Netflix in October 2025, and the screen adaptation of Grief is the Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch was released in November 2025. He is currently writer in residence in a UK prison, Associate Artist at The Southbank Centre and was chair of the judging panel for the International Booker Prize 2025.