The winner of the prestigious Booker Prize this year is Douglas Stuart, a New York resident who originally comes from Scotland. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain, is a heartbreaking story of a mother of three sons who, after her abusive husband finally leaves her, struggles with an alcohol addiction.

Many have made comparisons to Stuart’s own early life, where he was brought up in Glasgow. His own mother was an alcoholic who died when Stuart was in his teens.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Stuart said he’d written the book for himself and had never expected anyone to ever read it. It took him ten years to publish his novel, telling himself that he wasn’t a writer, that people with his background didn’t become published authors. For many of those years, his husband was the only person to read his manuscript.

“Growing up working class in Glasgow,” he said, “feeling excluded from literature for most of my young adult life, I internalized a lot of feelings; feelings of just not belonging.”

In short, he said, he had imposter syndrome. [Read more…]