Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good

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What to expect

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 Good hums 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

Critics Review

‘Stories that work from the inside out … In these glancing, intriguing stories, Williams is careful never to offer neat endings’ Guardian

‘Stories of deft surprise and smuggled revelations, glorious snapshots of lives lived with bafflement and wonder. Magical’ Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand

‘Undeniably a skilful book’ Telegraph

‘Poignant and playful’ Daily Mail

‘Delightfully comic stories executed with such precision and care … Williams is a writer with few real rivals for stylistic acuity and invention’ Irish Times

‘I don’t know anyone else who can write like this – language does something special for Eley Williams. What a joy!’ Ben Pester, author of Am I in the Right Place?

‘A visionary writer… Each story is a multi-layered, kaleidoscopic exploration of a moment. Williams writes with both buoyancy and tremendous weight’ Jan Carson, author of Quickly, While They Still Have Horses

‘Frequently brilliant and deeply pleasurable … Williams’ writing is funny, surprising, calming and inimitable’ Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives

‘Like Kate Atkinson’s recent Normal Rules Don’t Apply, what you have here is a strong, funny writer having some fun’ Bookmunch

‘Vital, vivid and oddly companionable stories… that make wonders from the ordinary in a heady but precise wordplay’ David Hayden, author of Darker with the Lights On

‘Swimming in Williams’ oceanic imagination is a joy for the head and the heart‘ Ruby Cowling, author of This Paradise

‘There’s a frightening type of joy in these stories; erudite and audacious’ Keiran Goddard, author of I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

‘Confirms her status as champion of the quixotic, the profound, the pulling-the-rug-from-under-your-feet unexpected. A writer to treasure’ Catherine Taylor, author of The Stirrings

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