Faber Members get 10% off their first order

Glasgow Boys

Margaret McDonald

A striking debut exploring the power of identity, community and the Scottish working class. This coming-of-age story is an incisive look at young masculinity and the way even the most fraught childhood is not without hope.

100 in stock

£8.99
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780571382972
Date Published
02.05.2024
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary

Tenderness itself, a song to love and friendship.’ Andrew O’Hagan
‘Stunning. Hopeful, heartbreaking and ultimately joyful.’ Simon James Green
‘As if you are reading your own heart written upon the page.’ Non Pratt

Two boys can’t remember the last time they had a hug.

Meet Finlay. He’s studying for his nursing degree at Glasgow University, against all the odds. But coming straight from care means he has no support network.
How can he write essays, find paid work and NOT fall for the beautiful boy at uni, when he’s struggling to even feed himself?

Meet Banjo. He’s trying to settle in with his new foster family and finish high school. But he can’t forget all that has happened, and his anger and fear keep boiling over.
How can he hold on to the one good person in his life, when his outbursts keep threatening his already uncertain future?

Can Finlay and Banjo let go of the past before it drags them under?

Reader Reviews:
Outstanding! This book I couldn’t put down took on holiday omg wasn’t what I expected but what a read must recommend totally.

This is a stunning debut novel that is so tender, so beautifully crafted with such a strong story that I’m still thinking about it a week later! The boys absolutely pop off the page and I was rooting for both of them to survive and thrive and was willing all those around them to see their true potential to love. As a teacher, as a mum of a teenage boy, as a Glaswegian and ex Glasgow Uni student I found something to think about, cry about and smile about. An absolute must read, it’ll be the best hours you spend in another wee world.

This was an emotional and heart wrenching story. I really enjoyed it and loved the characters of Finlay and Banjo. I also loved that it was set in Glasgow and that Banjo spoke in a broad Glaswegian accent as far as the writing went. As a Scottish person who had lived in the south for many years, the title of the book was what attracted me to it.

Critic Reviews

What a lovely book. Glasgow Boys is tenderness itself, a song to love and friendship. I really cared about Finlay and Banjo and all the flesh-and-blood people around them, wishing them all the best. Margaret McDonald is a terrific new talent and I encourage you to buy this novel for everyone who makes you smile.

Andrew O’Hagan, author of Mayflies
Critic Reviews

This desperately poignant YA debut is a paean to the power of friendship, and daring to be vulnerable in the face of past hurt.

Guardian
Critic Reviews

Powerful... deserves to be widely read and loved.

i Newspaper
Critic Reviews

Physical and emotional experiences are described in such vivid and visceral terms that we almost live and breathe every moment with the characters ... and along with it's deeply-felt, fast-paced and beautifully constructed double narrative, it's the hard-edged sense of the economic reality of working class Glasgow lives that gives the book much of it's raw strength.

The Scotsman
Critic Reviews

An achingly raw exploration of male friendship, sexuality, and what it means to love when you’ve never been shown any. Hopeful, heartbreaking, and ultimately joyful, Glasgow Boys is that rare novel – viscerally authentic, it completely nails how teenage boys navigate a world where emotion, and human connection, is seen as weakness. A beautifully told story and a stunning debut.

Simon James Green, author of Boy Like Me
Critic Reviews

Powerful and sensitive ... marks McDonald as a debut talent to watch.

The Bookseller, 'One to Watch'
Discussion Notes

Download free KS4 discussion notes for Glasgow Boys. Click here to access.

MargaretMcDonald

Margaret McDonald is a Scottish author from Glasgow. She is published in the disability-focused magazine Breath and Shadow as well as the prose and poetry magazines Bandit Fiction, Bubble Lit, In Parentheses, and The Manifest Station. Margaret worked for the NHS after shielding for a year, during which time she finished her Masters in English literature from Glasgow University with…

Read More
MargaretMcDonald
Margaret-McDonald-1.jpg
Also Recommended

Browse a selection of books we think you might also like, with genre matches and a few wildcards thrown in.