Malc's Boy

Malc's Boy charts a son's struggle and friendship with his father amidst a legacy of toxic masculinity and violence. Shaun grows up in Wigton, a small market town on the fringes of the Lake District, as the son of Malc, a prominent publican with a fearsome reputation. More concerned with establishing himself as an artist than making a name for himself in the town's hierarchical pub scene, Shaun rebels against his father's expectations. But when Malc is attacked by an old enemy, Shaun is forced to confront his father's past and escape the life he's been expected to lead.

Shaun Wilson was born in 1980 and raised in Wigton, Cumbria. In 2021, an early draft of Malc's Boy won a Northern Writers' Award, with an excerpt published by Granta in 2024. His work featured in Kit de Waal's working-class anthology Common People (Unbound, 2019), leading the acclaimed Kerry Hudson to tip him for 'big things' in the Observer. He has featured at various book festivals, on BBC Radio, and recently completed a placement at Semiotext(e). He holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Northumbria University and has worked as an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Universities of Northumbria and Teesside.

'A stunning, hilarious depiction of northern working-class violent masculinity conveyed - in a skewed way - through the form of experimental literary fiction.'
Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick

'Original, fierce, funny, poignant and real... He refuses to surrender his masculinity or to stand outside of it in a book about masculinity, which is exactly what is called for, in art.'
David Keenan, author of For the Good Times

'Malc's Boy is a shapeshifting novel exploring the beauty and violence of northern, working-class masculinity. The fluid, experimental form interrogates the notion of authorship and questions what it means to tell the story of places and people in their own voices and on their own terms - I am very excited to follow its journey.'
Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater

'Very compelling. I often find anything experimental a bit bloodless and cold but there is a real fleshy, gritty warmth to this. I love the way he pushes the boundaries of the form. Innovative, original and atmospheric.'
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

'I tip [Shaun Wilson] for big things...'
Kerry Hudson, author of Thirst

'Shaun Wilson is a startling new voice in literary fiction, a writer of breathtaking originality who somehow manages to be savage, lyrical and darkly comedic all at once. Malc's Boy does for the Lake District what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh.'
Andrew Crumey, author of Sputnik Caledonia

'Tears the notion of the bildungsroman to shreds. A boy learns toxic masculinity from his loving father and happily grows up without any sort of moral compass. A tonic for all those sick of tedious novels about rich people's problems.'
Stewart Home, author of Fascist Yoga

'Shaun Wilson treads the liminal trails which wend between verity and story - or even perhaps between dirty reality and dirty realism - to discover a quiddity of truth more faithful than the pure form of either state. And, as is so often the case in the bad-lands of border country, there is a stark beauty in this place.'
Jonathan Trigell, author of Boy A

'The best books are the ones which march into your imagination and occupy a place in it. Malc's Boy is like that: funny, frightening and utterly convincing, it doesn't so much wear its heart on its sleeve as staple it there, take a photograph and then dissect the concepts of 'heart' and 'sleeve' for good measure. It's a working-class memoir which confidently negotiates the unease of writing all this stuff down, and a story told in a compelling voice. Shaun Wilson is a proper talent.'
Tony Williams, author of All the Bananas I've Never Eaten and Nutcase

'Malc's Boy marries authentic Cumbrian dialect with an almost dizzying range of language and styles, high and low, philosophical, lyrical, funny and sometimes downright dirty.'
Ann Rower, author of If You're a Girl: Selected Stories 1985-2023

‘Malc's Boy is a raw, unflinching debut that dissects the turbulent bond between a son and his formidable father. From working-class life Wilson crafts a bold, emotionally charged, funny and beautiful tale that lingers long after the final page.’
Lee Rourke, author of Glitch

‘This pathbreaking autofictional work departs from the typical novel of working-class improvement or moral uplift, focusing instead on a narrative that is less heroic but more authentically representative of Northern working-class life. The language, dialect, plot and character all ring true and there is hardly a misplaced word.’
Hywel Dix, editor of Autofiction in English

 ‘Malc’s Boy captures Cumbrian life with biting authenticity and brings together sharp humour and deep feeling in a way that only local colour can. It is not so much a voice novel as it is a novel about the power of having a voice and how we understand ourselves in stories gone untold.’
Scott Preston, author of The Borrowed Hills

‘A moving, polyvocalic exploration of a young man’s struggle with the pressures of toxic masculinity, rendered with impressive technical skill. Malc’s Boy may not always be a comfortable read, but it is a necessary one.’
Louise Powell, author of Underdogs 

'I’ve been anticipating Shaun Wilson’s debut for years, and the finished book is just as innovative and brutal as those early extracts promised! Malc’s Boy is raw and real and full of insecure bravado: an unflinching interrogation of masculinity, and of a side of Cumbria not found on a daffodil tea towel.’
Katie Hale, author of The Edge of Solitude

‘Original, fierce and funny, Malc’s Boy confirms Wilson as a major new literary talent.’
Doug Johnstone, author of Tombstoning