![]() In parallel chapters, Stuart describes how Mungo got to this juncture. ![]() Her plan is for ‘St Christopher’, ‘an angular man in his late fifties or early sixties…withered and jaundiced by neglectful eating and hard drinking’, and ‘Gallowgate’, a twentysomething with ‘arms roped with lean muscle that spoke to a heavy trade, or years of fighting, or both’ to ‘make a man’ of her son. The story begins with Mungo’s often-absent mother coercing him to go for a weekend of fishing and camping with two lager-swilling men she knows from Alcoholics Anonymous. Early on he’s described as a ‘waif’ – a Dickensian word that alerts the reader to the tenor of the novel. His complexion, vocal tic and poor-fitting clothes lead people to think he’s ‘thirteen, tops’. ![]() The protagonist, Mungo Hamilton, is a frail, fatherless 15-year-old, but appears much younger. What’s it really like on your first night in prison? ![]()
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