NEW YORK (AP) — After growing up in a Glasgow household without books, Douglas Stuart didn’t know much about the literary world as a young man beyond the recommendations given by a favorite of daytime television watchers, even in Scotland — Oprah Winfrey.

“In a very classist country, Oprah’s club was one of the very first things that said books are for everyone. It was a powerful thing,” the 49-year-old author told The Associated Press during a recent interview at a hotel lounge in downtown Manhattan.

Stuart has since ascended high into a culture he once thought wanted no part of him. Best known for “Shuggie Bain,” he’s a bestseller, winner of the Booker Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize and he has seen his novels translated into dozens of languages.…