Heartbreakingly sad but beautiful

empfehlenswert. lustige Momente in dieser traurigen Geschichte.
Schottischer Akzent des Sprechers macht es boch authentischer.

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Excellent on many levels

The story is not easy to take, heartbreaking, a page turner, excellently written. If you get the audio, it’s read fabulously, one of the best, giving the story even more life.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

packend

Man fühlt mit, leidet mit und kann sich eine solche Kindheit kaum vorstellen. Toll geschrieben, toll erzählt.

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Buena historia con un narrador perfecto

Muy clavado a la vida en Glasgow de la gente en pobreza de aquel entonces

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Großartig!!

Eine rührend traurige Geschichte fantastisch erzählt, sicher seit langem das beste Buch, was ich hören durfte, uneingeschränkt empfehlenswert!

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Depressingly beautiful

Don't read this when you're feeling down. This is the dark wee brother of Trainspotting. Rather slow paced, it draws you more and more into the abyss of a dysfunctional family circling around their tragic drinking mother. I lovehated it very much.

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3 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Intense, strong story

I didn't think I would listen to the book until the end, the atmosphere was so frightening and intense even in the first quarter of an hour. But I was captivated by the story and its characters, as well as by the language. Simply great! I would love to see this book made into a film.

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Moving, awaking of old memories, with a twist of humour

The story of Shuggy is also the Agnes‘ story, a woman who was brought up well but who fell to the wayside because of her weakness for the bottle combined with her gullibility for the bad boy who could show her a good time which ultimately led to her demise.

The unsettling element is that so many children were impacted by her actions, her awful second husband’s spite and that she had so many people against her for being a little bit different, acting above her station, being an attractive woman who cared about her appearance.

Self-preservation drove daughter Catherine away to what was hopefully a happier life far, far away in South Africa, Agnes’ self-destruction removed the elder son, whose life and talent had already been spoiled by his mother, from her grasp leaving just poor, friendless Shuggy who was also a little bit different.

This book had me laughing, cringing and shedding unwilling tears at its rawness, crudeness and innate sadness. Poverty and abuse were rife during this era as I grew up not so far away, also from humble origins and in part, surrounded by people not so dissimilar. I counted my blessings at having escaped the horrors of a life like that, living on the edge, surrounded by people who didn’t know any better way than to be so downright nasty.

As my own wee boy yesterday couldn’t decide between swimming and bowling, I found myself making a very strong comparison to the life of Shuggy Bain, a wee boy with nothing who tried to care for his beloved mammy.

The story is simple, the magic is in the details that transport you into the moment, the cringe is in the vernacular. At times toe-curling, you find yourself rooting for Agnes, praying for Shuggy to win, hoping for a happy end despite the hopelessness of the situation.

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An outstanding but very sad story

The moment I started listening to the novel I expected it to win this year‘s Booker price. The profound characterization of the Bain family, the empathic description of Agnes Bain‘s constant strains to stop drinking and attempts to get healed from her alcohol addiction, Shuggy‘ s dilemma to leave his mother and live his own life or to stay with her is sometimes unbearable. But every word is worth reading so that I can highly recommend this wonderful novel.

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