18 best-selling audiobook books like Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas   Stuart

Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart

4.31

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who sp…

"Rain was a natural state of Glasgow. It kept the grass green and the people pale and bronchial."

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

"Opposite the gates was a low concrete building. Dozens of men were spilling out of its windowless structure and stood in dark clumps on the Pit Road. At first it looked like they were leaving chapel, but as the diesel engine roared nearer, they turned as if they were one. The miners stopped their talking and squinted to get a good look. They all wore the same black donkey jackets and were holding large amber pints and sucking on stubby doubts. The miners had scrubbed faces and pink hands that looked free of work. It seemed wrong, these men being the only clean thing for miles. Reluctantly, the miners parted and let the taxi go by. Leek watched them as they were watching him. His stomach sank. The men all had his mother’s eyes."

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

If you liked the audiobook plot in Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart , here is a list of 18 books like this:

1. A Little Life

By: Hanya Yanagihara

4.58

Format: None pages, Hardcover

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're… read more

Similar categories in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

2. Foster

By: Claire Keegan

3.92

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when s… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Foster book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

Cover of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

3. Small Things Like These

By: Claire Keegan

4.18

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal me… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"for people were bound, he knew, to reveal not only themselves, but what they knew, in conversation"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"When he reached the yard gate and found the padlock seized with frost, he felt the strain of being alive and wished he had stayed in bed, but he made himself carry on and crossed to a neighbour’s hou…"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Cover of Prophet Song by Paul    Lynch

4. Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch

4.10

Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more

Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

Cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas   Stuart

5. Shuggie Bain

By: Douglas Stuart

4.31

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who sp… read more

Similar categories in Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • historical
  • scotland
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • queer
"Rain was a natural state of Glasgow. It kept the grass green and the people pale and bronchial."

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

"Opposite the gates was a low concrete building. Dozens of men were spilling out of its windowless structure and stood in dark clumps on the Pit Road. At first it looked like they were leaving chapel,…"

-Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Cover of Penance by Eliza  Clark

6. Penance

By: Eliza Clark

3.90

Format: 336 pages, ebook

Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you li… read more

Similar categories in Eliza Clark's Penance book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Do you know what happened to her already? Did you catch it in the papers? Are you local? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did some website the trawls local news for the worst details…"

-Eliza Clark, Penance

Cover of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

7. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

By: Shehan Karunatilaka

3.92

Format: 386 pages, Hardcover

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what … read more

Similar categories in Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • queer
"Even suicide requires perseverance."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Why should a Creator watch over you? Wasn't creating you enough?"

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"You were simply a handsome man who enjoyed beautiful boys. Nothing more, nothing less and no one's business."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Despair always begins as a snack that you nibble on when bored and then becomes a meal that you have thrice a day."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Cover of Close to Home by Michael  Magee

8. Close to Home

By: Michael Magee

4.06

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does every­thing he's supposed to do. He works hard, he stud… read more

Similar categories in Michael Magee's Close to Home book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of In Memoriam by Alice Winn

9. In Memoriam

By: Alice Winn

4.53

Format: 382 pages, Hardcover

A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during a time of war. It'… read more

Similar categories in Alice Winn's In Memoriam book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • queer
"It’s intimate."

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Call me Sidney,"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Where’s the rest of it?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

"Do you believe in magic?"

-Alice Winn, In Memoriam

Cover of Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

10. Swimming in the Dark

By: Tomasz Jedrowski

4.26

Format: 191 pages, Hardcover

Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism, a tender and passionate story o… read more

Similar categories in Tomasz Jedrowski's Swimming in the Dark book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • historical
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • historical fiction
  • queer
"Little sparks cause fires too."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"I avoided you, so that you couldn’t avoid me."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"Selfish. Growing into yourself is nothing but that."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

"See it as a game– everyone knows the rules. And if you can’t change them, there’s no point in worrying."

-Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

Cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

11. Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang

3.77

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says… read more

Similar categories in R.F. Kuang's Yellowface book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"The truth is fluid, there is always another way to spin the story."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"They tell authors never to look at Goodreads, but nobody follows that advice—none of us can resist the urge to know how our work is being received."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hu…"

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

Cover of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

12. The Bee Sting

By: Paul Murray

3.96

Format: 656 pages, Hardcover

From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more

Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

Cover of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

13. Hamnet

By: Maggie O'Farrell

4.20

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare'… read more

Similar categories in Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • audiobook
"He has, Anges sees, done what any father would wish to do, to exchange his child’s suffering for his own, to take his place, to offer himself up in his child’s stead so that the boy might live."

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"And there, by the fire, held in the arms of his mother, in the room in which he learnt to crawl, to eat, to walk, to speak, Hamnet takes his last breath. He draws it in, he lets it out. Then there is…"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"Ahora esa persona se ha perdido para siempre. Va a la deriva, no reconoce su propia vida. Está desamarrada, extraviada. Es una persona que llora si no encuentra un zapato, si cuece la sopa más de lo …"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

"The sound that comes out of him is choked and smothered, like that of an animal forced to bears great weight. It is a noise of disbelief, of anguish. Anges will never forget it. At the end of her lif…"

-Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

Cover of Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan

14. Mayflies

By: Andrew O'Hagan

3.96

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

From the widely renowned author Andrew O'Hagan, a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong … read more

Similar categories in Andrew O'Hagan's Mayflies book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • scotland
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • historical fiction
  • novels
  • audiobook
"Go gently with people's pain. It's the same as yours."

-Andrew O'Hagan, Mayflies

"He drank like that, too: as if oblivion was a perfect place to be by yourself."

-Andrew O'Hagan, Mayflies

"He was a friend to friendship itself and never expected people to be better than they were."

-Andrew O'Hagan, Mayflies

"It wasn’t a matter to fight over: some families are made up of strangers and nothing can change it."

-Andrew O'Hagan, Mayflies

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

15. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

16. Trespasses

By: Louise Kennedy

4.00

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between … read more

Similar categories in Louise Kennedy's Trespasses book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of The Promise by Damon Galgut

17. The Promise

By: Damon Galgut

3.86

Format: 293 pages, Hardcover

The Promise , winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, charts the crash and burn of a white South African f… read more

Similar categories in Damon Galgut's The Promise book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
"A smile quickly cut his face and then healed up."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Give him a taboo and he feels the need to break it."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Children still, on the verge of not being children any more."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

"Her own voice sounds echoey, as if somebody else is speaking."

-Damon Galgut, The Promise

Cover of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

18. Girl, Woman, Other

By: Bernardine Evaristo

4.28

Format: 453 pages, Kindle Edition

Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood … read more

Similar categories in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"she's got what she needs, not the same as what she wants"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"Life is about taking risks, not about burying your head in the sand"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"Who needs enemies when your life partner undermines you on a regular basis?"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

"very small children don’t care about skin colour, Rachel, until they’re brainwashed by their parents"

-Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

Cover of Good Material by Dolly Alderton

19. Good Material

By: Dolly Alderton

3.91

Format: 345 pages, Paperback

From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and f… read more

Similar categories in Dolly Alderton's Good Material book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"Thirty-five is the youth of middle age."

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"Remember, a broken heart is a jester's greatest prop."

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"You know how to be along without being lonely. Do you know how rare that is?"

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

"Why is it that London always seems the most alive and full of possibility on the nights when you've got no plans?"

-Dolly Alderton, Good Material

Cover of Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

20. Cleopatra and Frankenstein

By: Coco Mellors

3.74

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant d… read more

Similar categories in Coco Mellors's Cleopatra and Frankenstein book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"And you’re in love?"

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"People are like this too, you know,"

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light."

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

"Cleo and Frank could not make each other happy, no matter how hard they’d tried."

-Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Cover of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

21. Sorrow and Bliss

By: Meg Mason

4.09

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she does… read more

Similar categories in Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss book and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
"We hugged each other like two people who had no practical experience of embracing, had only taught themselves the theory from a poorly worded manual."

-Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss

"I have been unbearable but I have never been unloved. I have felt alone but I have never been alone and I've been forgiven for the unforgiveable things I have done."

-Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss

"I have never understood why people think of champagne as celebratory rather than medicinal. (...) Surely the only time one needs one's blood effervesced is when life is utterly flat."

-Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss

"After Barbara’s Contentious Divorce, Everyone Felt Genuinely Hurt, Including Justifiably Kin Left Melancholically Noting Or Perhaps Questioning Rumours Suggesting That, Unannounced, Vincent’d Wed an …"

-Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss

15 must-read contemporary books like Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

Transform Your Habits

Shuggie Bain

Douglas Stuart

4.31

Transform Your Habits

Penance

Eliza Clark

3.90

Transform Your Habits

Close to Home

Michael Magee

4.06

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21 Top fiction books like Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Transform Your Habits

I Who Have Never Known Men

Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Trust

Hernan Diaz

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

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