The Guardian

Shuggie Bain’s tale tells us that the Booker prize has matured

A Scot’s success led to uproar in 1994 – but not this year, with the triumph of Douglas Stuart. Maybe the award is growing up
Douglas Stuart being awarded his Booker prize virtually from the Roundhouse in London last week. Photograph: David Parry/Getty Images

Representation in fiction: why does it matter? The reasons are legion, and obvious. If, for example, you grow up reading books in which you see nobody who looks – either literally or figuratively – like you, then there are consequences. It shapes your idea of a default citizen, of the value of who and what is written about, and of the hierarchy of imaginative possibility. And if – as artists and

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