Juano Diaz is a Scottish artist and author.
JUANO DIAZ
SLUM BOY A PORTRAIT
JUANO DIAZ
"Compulsory readable (somehow you keep forgetting he survived to write the book in your hands), It's Dickensian in its rich cast of Glaswegian characters. Bravo."
-Patrick Gale.
"Even in the most squalid and violent episodes of Juano Diaz’s childhood he was able to find beauty, and in Slum Boy he writes with great beauty, a fusion of both the innocence of that little boy and the wisdom of the man he has become. It is a heartbreaking and inspiring read."
- Alan Cumming
"Brilliant! Juano is a successful artist today and yet he tells his story with no fear and brutal honesty. I say 'brutal honesty' but I never felt that the author was out of control. If you like Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart and Maggie and Me by Damian Barr then 'Slumboy' is for you. The experience of Juano tells me so much about humanity and family. What a brave and powerful child he was and what a brave and powerful adult he must be. When I read his story I thought 'how can any child survive this? But he did."
-Lemn Sissay
SLUM BOY A PORTRAIT
John MacDonald must find his mother.
Born into the slums of Glasgow in the late '70s, a 4-year-old John's life is filled with the debris of alcoholism and poverty. Soon after witnessing a drowning, his mother's addictions take over their lives, leaving him starving in their flat, awaiting her return.
A concerned neighbor reports her, and he is forcibly taken away from his mother and placed into the care system. There, he dreams of being reunited with her. His mind is consumed with images and memories he can't process or understand, which his eventual adoptive parents silence out of fear as he grows into a young man within a strict Catholic and Romany Gypsy community.
This memoir is about how John found his way to his true identity, Juano Diaz, and how, against all odds, his unstoppable love for his mother sets him free.
