A Room Above A Shop by Anthony Shapland

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).

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).