3.5 stars rounded up.
With thanks to NetGalley and Granta for the arc.
This short novel tells the story of B, a young, rudderless man and M, eleven years older and owner of a ironmongers, and how they find solace and purpose in their hidden relationship and sexual awakening. Set in South Wales against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis and Section 28 this is a poignant and, at times, claustrophobic portrayal of gay, working-class love and life during a particularly difficult period in British history.
I found Shapland’s writing to be lyrical and poetic, although at times a little heavy-handed - it felt as if the author couldn’t resist the urge to over-write, when a more sparse prose may have served the story better in places. The over-use of metaphor and descriptive passages, whilst useful for helping position the reader in the scene, acted as a barrier to feeling connected to B & M - their characters get lost in the minutiae of their environment.
Overall, a good read and a writer with great potential.

3.5-4 ☆. A Room Above A Shop by Anthony Shapland is a love story all about hiding. Though it is a slim novel told in fragments, its figurative language makes for a vivid reading experience. Set in the 1980s in a small and conservative Welsh town with the HIV and AIDS crisis looming over, the relationship between the two men is depicted through mundane actions. Readers get a glimpse into their intimate bond yet Shapland’s prose supports the narrative in that it still conceals it from us. In a way, M and B continue to protect themselves in front of the reader.

A stylistic choice that many would like but personally, it made the characters feel distant. The pacing moved quickly from one moment to another and felt abrupt in certain sections. I would have enjoyed more moments to sit with these characters and their quiet romance.

Regardless, A Room Above a Shop truly shows Shapland’s skill with prose and is a delicately poignant debut.

A short (much too short) story about a relationship between two men in a rural Welsh community in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But despite its brevity, the novel does an incredible job of producing a queer phenomenology (cf. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others) of all those everyday, small acts that constitute the quotidian life of queer individuals in a homophobic society. Most of that life is lived under very restricted conditions, with only brief respites from the constant, slow violence of cis-heterosexual dominance. I just wish the novel was longer, and I can't wait to see what Shapland does next.

Tender and beautifully written, this short but powerful book was filled with emotion.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

An Observer best debut novel for 2025, A Room Above A Shop is a lyrical, poetic novella about a gay relationship between two men in a small Welsh town in the 1980s.

The story is set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis and section 28 (a law passed in 1988 by a Conservative government that stopped councils and schools "promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”).

Lyrical and poetic can often be a turn-off for me if I’m honest. On this occasion the staccato writing felt contrived at times and put me at a remove from the characters and the story. I loved the story and longed to feel a little closer to the characters, but instead I felt the author’s presence which isn’t a good thing. Overwritten = underwhelmed.

B and M meet and connect in a pub one evening, and build an intimate and quiet relationship behind closed doors in the room above M’s hardware shop. The relationship is tender and loving, and I’d have taken more of that and less of the smell of moss and rain in the surrounding countryside. Still, a short one that has some beautiful moments and a poignant ending. It also serves as a reminder of the fragility of LGBT+ rights in the world right now. 3/5⭐️

I feel that there is a genre of literature about gay men drifting in a timeless literary sea. There are clues as to when the story is set, but mostly it is about the inner lives of men who are not allowed to be who they are, and yet find a moment of true feeling - before everything falls apart again. I recently read The Gallopers by Jon Ransom, a novel that felt a lot like A Room Above a Shop. Perhaps that influenced the way I read the latter.

"Two men, ten years apart, meet - first in a pub, then on a hill, and soon find a way to move into the titular room above a shop together without arousing suspicion. 1980s, South Wales - being gay is not okay. The prose is sparse, the emotions big, and everything is expressed in the manner of great literature. In a scene that ends with the fear of what would happen if the partner died, you can see the tone of the novel and the way it uses metaphors:

Two butterflies. Brimstones–sulphur-yellow–land on purple flower spikes. He sits and watches …

Lifting, the insects circle each other, spin and bounce a vortex, dangerous and close. A single engine firing and rolling and gliding and fluttering. One thing, a shared two-beat rhythm. A tide, the moons. The lift of spring air on beating wings. The fight, the spiral, rises to higher and higher levels then drops close past him. It is magnetic, intoxicating. Each concerned with nothing but the other, obscuring the view, filling the gaze of all four eyes completely.

B’s two eyes follow the tumbling blur and he sees the pale yellow bedspread folded over the shoulders of his dad in the last days. He wonders about getting old, about M getting old ahead of him. He imagines them both cocooned in pastel blankets, wondering at each other and the happy thing they have made here."

I am all for literary writing, but sometimes it just becomes all metaphor, all language. I liked the novel, but was really glad that it was quite short. Despite a heartbreaking ending, I never really got to know the characters. It was an interesting read, don't get me wrong, but I'd like some less poetic and less tragic gays for my next read, if you don't mind.

A Room Above a Shop is an atmospheric and intimate story about two men entering a relationship during the AIDS crisis. This is one of the most difficult reviews I have had to write and despite receiving an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC), I have struggled to eloquently put together my thoughts until now.

On the one hand, the entire book is poetry. Shapland's style is unique, flowery yet understated. Every word has a purpose, there's no room for fluff. I found myself re-reading the same lines repeatedly, finding more hidden depth in each review and building up the narrative far more slowly than the short word count would suggest.

The tale is so evocative. It is the saddest love story I have ever read despite not having the same level of trauma as many. The characters are vulnerable, their situation bleak. It feels immersive, gritty and real.

And yet, the very things which make this book successful are the ones which harm it too. The pace is slow and in places, it is hard going. The book took less than two hours to read but I put it down six times. It is a beautiful literary creation but reading it feels like work. The analysis required to really understand is likely to put off many readers. For the less academic, the full context is lost and for the busy intellectual, this may take more mental effort than it is worth. Most of us are looking to read for pleasure after a long working day.

If you want a book to unwind with, you may be disappointed with what Shapland can offer. At 160 pages, the current RRP of £15 is off-putting too. However, if you can find this at the local library then I would check it out. If nothing else, it is very different to anything you will have read before.

All in all, I would read more of Shapland's work. I would definitely recommend to those in my poetry circle. For the rest of the world, there are less intense reads.

This review will be posted on the Pending Plays website on 7th April.

The writing in this is very dreamlike and just wasn't something I connected with unfortunately.. I think the lack of names also didn't help for me, but i can see how this style of writing may suit other people.

Thank you, Anthony Shapland and Granta Publications, for the digital copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Room Above a Shop is an intimate, poignant, and atmospheric short novel from a new poetic voice. With quiet intensity and a lyrical style, this slim volume carries the weight of yearning and repression lived by many queer individuals. Anthony Shapland's writing oozes lyricism, and every word is carefully crafted and woven into an exploration—almost voyeuristical—of a sense of longing, identity, and societal prejudices set against the backdrop of Section 28, the age of consent debate, and the AIDS crisis in Wales.

The story follows B, a young adult struggling with his sexual identity, future, religion, and a newfound desire for M, an older—by eleven years—divorced shopkeeper grappling with the reciprocity of his feelings. Through snippets, Shapland recounts the internalized shame and secrecy that both men must endure. M has inherited his family's ironmongery business and soon offers B a job and a room. B accepts. With time, the room above the shop becomes a sanctuary, a place where they can escape the judgmental eyes of the village. "The first. It's a world only they know. The place they have for each other. A refuge, a hide." Inevitably, this refuge is not entirely safe, and societal prejudices eventually seep in. "Men like that are a menace. Buggers. Keep children safe, boys away." The author skillfully portrays the delicate balance between their love and the ever-present dread of discovery by the suspicious, prejudiced, and quietly violent small-town inhabitants.

B is a sensitive and artistic soul, yearning for acceptance but struggling to reconcile his desires with his religious upbringing. M, on the other hand, carries the weight of a past marriage, an 'absent' daughter and a quiet acceptance of his place in the community, finding unexpected happiness in B. Shapland's prose is poetic and evocative—and often convoluted—which detracted from my overall enjoyment. The description of the landscape as "lowland left to sour. Compacted new-build clay, a brownfield slicked in frost" creates a sense of both beauty and decay. While I enjoyed the lyrical prose and the exploration of themes, the pacing felt somewhat slow at times due to its occasionally convoluted prose, which might not appeal to many.

A Room Above a Shop is a tender and resonant love story told in a beautiful, poetic narrative. It is a powerful debut to be read, re-read, and savoured. However, the ever-present lyricism and occasionally convoluted prose may not work to many. Readers who appreciate lyrical writing and are drawn to character-driven stories exploring themes of love, identity, and social prejudice will likely find this book rewarding.

An honest and moving story. The prose does justice to the "two quiet men" in the blurb. The author manages to tell a story without saying out loud the most important words. Sometimes his sentences sound like a ramble of words, yet it is crystal clear what is happening. This short novel is packed with deep feelings and lots of passion.

I really loved the initial premise of the novel but i really struggled to connect with this due to the lack of character names. If this was something i knew about before starting, i would have adjusted my expectations for it. The story itself was interesting but i just never connected with it because of the lack of character connection. I wish i liked it but it wasn't for me at the end of the day.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
I don’t think I was really in the right headspace to read this, which is why my rating is perhaps slightly harsh. This is a sparse novella in a particular style – one which I’ve read in a lot of debuts recently, and am perhaps tiring of. However, give this to me on another day I would probably praise the lack of context the reader is given, and describe it as beautifully simple. With little identifying features to locate the book, the feeling is that this exact love story was playing out in numerous industrial towns peppering the Welsh Valleys. I was probably looking for more to adhere me to the couple we meet here, in order to connect with the plot and their plight on a deeper level. I will be recommending it, but wish I had come across this title at a different time, when I could have appreciated it for what it is more readily.

🏞️ REVIEW 🏞️

A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland
Release Date: 13th March 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

📝 - 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. As the two men work side by side in the shop, they also begin a life together in their one shared room above - the kind of life they never imagined possible and that risks everything if their public performance were to slip. Unfolding in South Wales against the backdrop of Section 28, the age of consent debate and the HIV and AIDS crisis, this is a tender and resonant love story, and a powerful debut.

💭 - My high hopes for this one were absolutely met, if not exceeded. This is my bread and butter. Tender, queer love, with such poetic writing that every sentence rolls off the tongue and brings to life so clearly the setting of South Wales valleys. All I can think is how much I want a short film made of this, how much I want to see these characters become reality, see the knowing looks, the tenderness and tentative touches. This book really just scratches that itch that very few do. In just 160 pages, Anthony Shapland paints such a vivid picture I just cannot wait to see what he may do next. A brilliant debut. Read it as soon as you can.

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A beautifully written short novel. About two gay men finding love against a background of discrimination. Achingly sad and the language is condensed into poetry. Moving. Recommended.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.