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Member Reviews

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This is short book which, to me, read like a person reminiscing about his past. It is a bit misty and dream like in a way and it is not easy to connect with the characters. It might have been easier if they had been given names although possibly the initials are intended to convey a more "everyman" feel. From the AIDS references, it must be set in the 1980s but the shop and the attitudes seem set in a time further back, possibly because of the small town location.

The descriptions of the landscape are particularly good and poetic in feel. The book has an increasingly melancholy tone and the ending is unexpected and really very sad, bit of a downer in fact.

i quite enjoyed the book but I feel that there will be other readers with whom it will resonate more deeply.

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I absolutely loved this beautiful book!

A Room Above a Shop is set in South Wales at the time of the HIV and AIDs crisis and follows as two men - B and M - form a friendship that grows into something more. They start working together in the village shop and then move in together in a room above the shop living a life that they have to hide at all costs.

It’s a beautifully written book that is so slow and careful in its writing. So many small details are explored and described and you really get a sense of the anxiety and difficulty of the time. Reading a book set in a rural area really gave a good idea of the prejudices the men faced and how much they risked to be together.

I loved how although you got to know them both, they still remained at a distance from the reader, known only by their initials.

I’m so glad I read this - it’s a slim little novel but definitely worth picking up as it’s something very original and beautifully crafted.

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4.5/5 stars!

This book completely pulled me in. It’s quiet and introspective, more about atmosphere than plot, but Anthony Shapland’s writing makes the mundane feel almost poetic. The narrator, living in a small flat above a shop, watches the world go by in fragments, memories, observations, and little moments that feel oddly profound. It captures loneliness in such a subtle, beautiful way.

It won’t be for everyone; it’s slow, with no real resolution, but if you love books that are more about mood and sensation, this one lingers. I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

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This is only a short read at 160 pages and felt to me like reading a very long poem. Written in a conscious thought style we follow “B” and “M” who begin a relationship when M offers B a place to stay in the room above his shop. Set in 1980s Wales Shapland poignantly manages to highlight the lack of acceptance of homosexual relationships and the fear of discovery/being outed felt visceral at times. An important read for making sure society doesn’t ever return to those times. I’m left hoping that B found his happy ending somewhere.

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this book was powerful and beautiful. sad and horrible but wonderful and hopeful all at once.
i was emotional both from reading the words on the page and also to later thoughts that followed me around even when the book wasnt in my hand. it makes you feel so much for our gay fellow humans. what they had to face. STILL sadly face. and in certain communities this can be made ever harder. but certainly in the 1980s this life for them must often have seemed impossible and worse horrific to get through.
our two characters are very different but ultimately the same. because they both want and feel love. and both arent allowed it from the very people around them.
working together and then living together in the shop above they find their sanctuary both in place and each other. when the world threatens this is where they seek refuge, hope and healing.
this book felt like i was reading a poem. it flowed and gracefully floated me over the words,relationship and pages.
i had every emotion going through. surprisingly alot of rage found its place in my heart. the injustice of it all didnt sit well with me. for those suffering then and also how lots still do to this day.
how so many things have moved on but achingly how much hasnt. and even worse where in todays world a new darker set of thinking and behaviors seem to be at play.
to think people had to hide themselves and or their love in dark places feel terrible. sometimes not living it at all. and what this does to ones character,sense of self and even their ability to survive just feels awful for all involved.
i thoroughly enjoyed this tender book.

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A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.25 stars
Publication date: 13th March 2025

Thank you to Granta and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When two quiet men form a tentative connection neither knows where it might lead. M has inherited his family's ironmongery business and B is younger by eleven years and can see no future in the place where he has grown up, but when M offers him a job and lodgings, he accepts.

This was so beautiful; Shapland’s writing is very poetic and evocative, and this was such an intimate and quiet love story. I loved seeing the progression of B and M’s relationship through little slices of their lives together, from the awkwardness of their first interaction to their familiar, mundane intimacies in the small, quiet space they created for themselves in the room above M’s shop. This is not a story without its heartbreak, though, taking place in a time of deep societal prejudices against gay men, and the real danger they could be in if discovered, and the looming threat of the AIDS epidemic.
And, without giving spoilers, this is also a story that went exactly in the direction I expected it to, and fervently hoped it wouldn't.

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Set in a small Welsh town in the late 1980s, *A Room Above a Shop* follows the relationship between M and B, two men living in a world where their love must remain hidden. M, older and rooted in his family's ironmongery business, offers B both a job and a place to stay, leading them to share a quiet life in a single room above the shop. But in a time of deep societal prejudice, their relationship is built on careful concealment—stolen glances, fleeting touches, and unspoken words. The outside world is kept at bay, their universe shrinking to the shop, their room, and the nearby hill they visit together.

This is a beautiful yet heartbreaking novel. It captures the weight of secrecy and the quiet tragedies of a love that can never fully exist in the open. The writing is deeply lyrical, almost dreamlike, often obscuring details in a way that mirrors the characters' own hidden existence. At times, I found it a little too abstract, losing track of which character’s perspective I was following. But overall, it was an emotional, contemplative read. A poignant, poetic novel—4 stars.

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Set in the late 1980s, M & B, two men in a small Welsh town are courting. It is secretive and cautious. Both men understand the societal rules and so if discovered, will face a response from their families and the township, likely to consist of prejudice, fear, religious backlash and scorn. It is a world that doesn't understand them. But long before the relationship starts, they need to break down each others barriers and apprehension.

The story carefully follows their relationship, skirting with the challenges faced with a secret relationship: how do you integrate family, what does discovery mean and the deep anxiety of the looming AIDs crisis.

The slowly unfurling and beautiful prose in this book is magical. Every sentence is poignant. Hope, sorrow, and love are draped over each page. I felt so much reading this book, pulled into the joys of possible love and that amazing connection when you find a soulmate, to the terror of being discovered and having everything that has been so carefully constructed, fall like a pack of cards.

A beautiful work, raw and compelling, but also loving and tender. A book to immerse yourself in. I thoroughly loved it.

Thank you so much to #NetGalley and to Granta Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy. I will be keeping an eye out for anything by this amazing author!

(Note: I will add another social link closer to the publish date)

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Beautiful, intimate and demonstrating deep emotion through the detail of tiny events, A Room Above a Shop is a superb debut novel. It’s admirably short, and paints its picture of small village / town Welsh life in the 80s with limited context but with more than enough to bring M & B’s closeted existence to life. I read in a single sitting, pausing only to reflect on some of the beautiful phrasing. Best debut I’ve read in a while

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This book is really something special The prose is so beautiful and there were many moments where a sentence or paragraph would stop me in my tracks and demand to be reread. This book really captures so many of the small intimacies that make up a relationship while also wrestling with the cost of hiding and shame.

I would recommend finishing this in one or two sittings to really feel the full impact of what Shapland is doing here. It is possible that I spent too long dipping in and out and because of this, at times, I found it difficult to fully land in time and place due to the vignette style storytelling used throughout.

A really beautiful story and one I suspect will stay with me for a while.

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Anthony Shapland's *A Room Above a Shop* is a poignant and intimate novel set in a small Welsh town during the late 1980s. It follows a secret love affair between two men, unfolding against the backdrop of societal prejudice and the looming AIDS crisis. Shapland’s writing is lyrical and atmospheric, capturing the quiet moments of desire, fear, and longing with great sensitivity. The novel offers a raw yet beautifully crafted glimpse into working-class queer life, making it both a powerful reflection on a difficult era and a deeply personal story of love and survival.

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The writing was very dreamlike throughout, I felt as if I was reading someones inner thoughts. While I enjoyed this at the start, it made it difficult to connect with the characters and what was happening. We got a glimpse into their lives, one that was full of sadness and pain, and I wish there was a little more focus on the plot and characters rather than the prose. Beautiful writing but lacking a little elsewhere.

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Who doesn't love picking up a book and immediately recognizing it as something special? I read this short, powerful book in a single sitting and will undoubtedly read it again. It's the story of two men and their furtive relationship, told over several years and set in a village in South Wales. The writing is just so beautiful - a uniquely sparse, dense and quiet prose that felt cinematic and completely captivating. This was a lovely, heartbreaking, all-consuming reading experience about love and grief and the rifts between our inner and outer worlds.

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A Room Above A Shop is a literary fiction novel set to be published by Granta on 13th March 2025.

Anthony Shapland’s A Room Above A Shop follows two queer men, B and M, in 1980s Wales. Despite never mentioning her by name, this heartbreaking novel is backdropped by Thatcher's horrific tenure as Prime Minister (particularly the queerphobic Section 28), and deals with themes of alienation, ignorance, shame, love, expectation.

When M, an ironmonger taking on the family hardware store, hires B as a new employee and lodger, sparks fly in secret, away from bigoted residents, despite an 11-year age gap.

The novel has chapters that are more like vignettes, there's something vital and fleeting about them, with poetic descriptions almost listed like observations but still maintaining an air of beauty. The language and descriptions are so vivid and sibilant that there were times when I couldn't help but read aloud, as the words felt like they needed to be spoken, the sounds knitting together a further layer to the description. Often these remind me of some of the very visceral poetry I enjoy and have written myself in the past.

A raw look at the state of being gay in a deeply homophobic era, Shapland exemplifies how far we've come, and just how far we have to go. The deep personal shame B and M feel really resonates even with a distance of forty years.

My initial reaction on finishing A Room Above A Shop was ‘wow’, words failing, and I just know this story will stay with me for a long time.

Alt text/Image description: the cover of the novel, a pale background with a green mountain shape rising from the bottom (containing the author's name) and a black mountain shape looming down from the top (with the title).

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A poignant short read with some beautiful prose. I enjoyed how poetic it felt. It's a very atmospheric book and beautifully crafted. It took me just over an hour to read - I hadn't been expecting it to be as short as it was when I picked it up initially, but this little story made a big impact on me. I appreciated the character study driven nature it had, as opposed to being a primarily plot driven read. I think it's particularly suited to queer readers and I'd definitely recommend this.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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The book gives us a glimpse into small village life in Wales in the late ‘80s. Two gay men navigating a world in which HIV has just reared it’s ugly head and where being gay feels impossible.
The writing feels very poetic and dreamlike. It feels very dreamlike in how it is written, more snippets than a continuous story. At times it feels very atmospheric and at times it feels like more is needed to fully comprehend.

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A short sharp novel that fills your heart with such a sweet and uplifting feeling in your stomach, don’t get me wrong there are moments scattered throughout this book where it does deal with grief and loneliness, but through all that, we have a gorgeously crafted Novel following our two protagonists known as B and M who’s paths cross in such a touching way and the relationship that flourishes between these two gentlemen… and a room above a shop which is a significant part of the story too,

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A poetic, polished and experimental novella that depicts a three year romantic relationship between two men set in Wales, during the Aids crisis.

I didn't find it an enjoyable read. Driven by the beautiful prose, rather than plot or being character driven, A Room Above a Shop has quite an off-beat rythym making it feel a little stilted.

It is not a book I would easily recommend, but I do think it is very well-written.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

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Anthony Shapland's novella A Room Above A Shop tells the love story of two men in late 1980s' Wales, and it broke my heart.

What mesmerized me most about Shapland’s writing is his extraordinary ability to craft atmosphere – you can smell the damp grass and moss, feel the weight of the overcast sky, and see the buzzards circling above a landscape that is as vivid as it is lonely.

Then there’s his way of capturing awkward, fleeting moments – those encounters where bodies speak. Hands reach, fingers shred bottle labels, breaths meet in a drifting vapour. These details turn physical reactions into tiny protagonists of their own, shaping the emotional landscape as much as the Welsh hills.

And, of course, at its heart, a love story as intimate as the title suggests – tender und unforgettable.

A big thank you to Granta for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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A Room Above a Shop is a novel about two men in south Wales who find a love they must keep secret from the world. Known only as B and M, two men meet and see something in one another. After an awkward New Year's excursion, they find a way to be together: B helps M with his ironmonger's shop, living above the shop together as if hew as an apprentice. Around them, the news talks about AIDS and Section 28, and they must keep their public performance up so they don't lose what they have.

This is a story told in vignettes, charting a love story in a poetic way through the small moments in the two men's lives. The ending is sudden, bringing with it the shock of how life can go, and I was pleased that it didn't take perhaps the other, more obvious, narrative turn. It's a literary portrayal of gay working-class life in South Wales in that time, focused on tenderness and emotion rather than a more dramatic narrative, so is going to be one for fans of books that are in that kind of style. Personally, I enjoyed it, but its sparseness left me feeling removed from it, so that didn't quite work for me.

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