‘A heart-breaking, inspiring read’ ALAN CUMMING
‘ONE OF THE MOST MOVING ACCOUNTS OF NON-FICTION EVER WRITTEN’ GUARDIAN
‘If you like Shuggie Bain, then Slum Boy is for you’ LEMN SISSAY
John MacDonald is a four-year-old boy growing up in the slums of Glasgow. His mother is an addict who leaves him starving in their flat for days at a time.
When a neighbour files a report, John is wrenched away from her and dropped into the care system. There, he has experiences he’s too young to understand which his Romani adoptive parents silence as he grows into a gay man.
But John dreams of being reunited with his mother and will stop at nothing to find her. Slum Boy is about how, against all odds, John found a way to his mother and true identity: JUANO DIAZ.
‘Remarkable’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
In 2024, Juano Diaz was awarded the Pride Award for LGBTQ+ Heroes Changing the World.
‘Beautiful. I hope it finds a million readers’ ANDREW O’HAGAN
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Reviews
A reminder that beautiful things grow and flourish
An extraordinary survival story
Beautifully written... This elegant memoir immediately brings to mind Shuggie Bain. Slum Boy is one of the most moving accounts of non-fiction ever written
Powerful... A remarkable and moving tale of survival
The best book we have ever read
Vivid prose, novelistic pacing and Diaz's palpable passion for the creative life makes this sing... Remarkable
A heart-breaking, inspiring read
Fans of Douglas Stuart and Damian Barr will pounce on this startling debut. Compulsively readable, it's Dickensian in its rich cast of Glaswegian characters
I laughed and cried. A masterpiece
This is a heart-breaking story, beautifully told
What a brave and powerful story. If you like Shuggie Bain and Damian Barr, then Slum Boy is for you