Eley Williams: Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good, Kartoniert / Broschiert

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE

A Granta Best Young British Novelist

**'A thrilling love for the stuff of language ... Magical'**JON McGREGOR

'Poignant and playful' DAILY MAIL

'A writer with few real rivals' IRISH TIMES

**'A visionary writer'**JAN CARSON

The stunning new collection of stories from the award-winning author of The Liar's Dictionary and Attrib. and Other Stories.

Granta Best Young British novelist and acclaimed author of Attrib. and other stories, Eley Williams returns with a thrilling collection of short stories exploring the nature of relationships both intimate and transient - from the easy gamesmanship of contagious yawns to the horror of a smile fixed for just a second too long.

A courtroom sketch artist delights in committing portraits of their lover to paper but their need to capture likenesses forever is revealed to have darker, more complex intentions. A child's schoolyard crush on a saint marks a confrontation with the reality of a teenage body in flux. Elsewhere, an editor of canned laughter loses their confidence and seeks divine intervention, and an essayist annotates their thoughts on Keats by way of internet-gleaned sex tips.

Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Goodhums with fossicking language and ingenious experiments in form and considers notions of playfulness, authenticity and care as it holds relationships to account: their sweet misunderstandings, soured reflections, queer wish fulfilments and shared, held breaths.

'Undeniably a skilful book' TELEGRAPH

'Stories that work from the inside out... glancing, intriguing' GUARDIAN

**'Erudite and audacious'**KEIRAN GODDARD

**'Frequently brilliant and deeply pleasurable' CAOILINN HUGHES

'I don't know anyone else who can write like this ... What a joy!' BEN PESTER

'A joy for the head and the heart' RUBY COWLING