Söndags-smakbit # 4

Bloggen Betraktelser ger oss varannan söndag chansen att publicera ett litet smakprov ur en bok vi läser.
Där får du många spännande boktitlar att kika närmare på.

En av böckerna jag håller på att läsa är Shuggie Bain av Douglas Stuart. Boken vann The 2020 Booker Prize och kommer översatt till svenska i mars.

Året är 1981 och industristaden Glasgow är nere för räkning. Under Thatchers järnhårda styre måste man kämpa för att överleva. Glamorösa Agnes Bain har alltid haft större drömmar än så, men när hennes man lämnar familjen faller allt samman och det kommer an på barnen att fånga henne.
Titeln är länkad till förlaget där du kan läsa mer.

Smakbit sid. 27

”Shag was slowly losing his looks, but he was still commanding, magnetic. there was a direktness to his gaze that did something funny to Agnes. She had once told her mother that when she met Shug he had a gleam in his eye that would make you take your clothes off if only he asked. Shug had the Glasgow patter in his pressed suit and narrow tie.”

sid.72

”Agnes wrapped her lips around the cold metal tap and gulped the fluoride-heavy water, panting and gasping like a thirsty dog. She began to wipe the ruined make-up off her face ; the cotton wool came away blackened with soot stains. Opening the medicine cabinet, she searched the plastic shelves for Wullie´s medicine, something to take the edge of, but the painkillers were gone. She lifted a bottle of congealed cough syrup and took a mouthful, and then she took another.”

sid. 270

-Why did you laugh?
-Cos I felt like it.
He was picking some mud from his leg. The boy´s clothes were well worn and fit badly. It was his brothers´s old shirt turned inside out and some borrowed gym shorts, the oned they gave you when you fogot your kit and tried to stay back and read a book instead. His legs were dirty, several layers deep, and his socks were black dress socks instead of name-brand sports ones.
The ball sailed over them, and the other boys tore up the field like Shetland ponies, cantering as one and giving the impression they were scared to be separated..”