Alan Cumming picks his favourite books

The award-winning actor picks his favourites. He and Forbes Masson are at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 10 August to celebrate their new book, "Victor & Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium".

After Leaving Mr Mackenzie

Jean Rhys, 1931

Rhys was one of those amazing, tragic, ahead-of-her-time women and her life mirrored that of Julia, the main character in this book, which is a raging scream against the patriarchy and a biting critique of how women are viewed.

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Shuggie Bain

Douglas Stuart, 2020

Reading this book is an immersive experience – you emerge shattered and changed forever. Shuggie is a queer boy growing up in Glasgow's council estates. The only respite from the male toxicity and squalor he endures is his mother, Agnes, a drunk siren whose messy love is a beacon in Shuggie's darkness.

Available on The Week Bookshop

The Trick Is To Keep Breathing

Janice Galloway, 1989

Galloway is one of Scotland's finest writers and this was her debut, full of visceral pain and anguish, with the ironically named protagonist Joy trying to find the trick to continuing to live. I like books about people who are falling apart, told from inside the characters' broken mind. I guess I like exploring the dark side. And this one is dark gold.

Available on The Week Bookshop

Christopher and His Kind

Christopher Isherwood, 1976

Isherwood has, inadvertently, had a huge impact on my life, possibly more than any other writer. His "The Berlin Stories" were the basis for the musical "Cabaret", which I’ve been in a few times. However, this is the unsanitised version of his life in Berlin at the end of the 1920s, just as Hitler was coming to prominence.

Available on The Week Bookshop

The Foghorn Echoes

Danny Ramadan, 2022

"Treat your thoughts like hurt children. They haven't yet learnt how to handle pain." So says a wise ghost in this mesmerising story that spans time and mortal space, from war-torn childhood in Damascus to adult life in Vancouver's gaybourhood.

Available on The Week Bookshop