Shy Creatures
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
From the author of bestselling sensation Small Pleasures comes a life-affirming exploration of love, loneliness and the quiet forces that shape our lives.
'Just as good - if not better - than Small Pleasures' INDEPENDENT
'As compelling as you want fiction to be' SUNDAY TIMES
'One of our most talented authors' GUARDIAN
'A beautiful story of unfolding secrets and unforeseen consequences' HOLLY GRAMAZIO, author of THE HUSBANDS
Croydon, 1964. Art therapist Helen Hansford is working in a psychiatric hospital, where she has been having passionate but precarious affair with her married colleague, the charismatic Dr Gil Rudden.
Helen's structured life is upended when William Tapping - a silent, thirty-seven-year-old man with a beard down to his waist - arrives the hospital. As Helen helps William express himself through art, she becomes increasingly entangled in his mysterious past.
Inspired by a true story, Shy Creatures is a life-affirming exploration of loneliness, love and the quiet forces that shape our lives, reminding us that freedom can come in unexpected forms.
'Reading a Clare Chambers novel can feel like entering a modest bungalow and finding yourself in a cathedral' SUNDAY TIMES
'Extraordinary' FINANCIAL TIMES
'A warm, multi-layered mystery brimming with all the same nostalgia, wit and tenderness as Small Pleasures' i PAPER
'A lively, funny, forgiving novel' PATRICK GALE
'Chambers is such a humane writer and this novel is full of exquisite detail' EVENING STANDARD
*Small Pleasures was a Silver Award bestseller according to Nielsen BookScan UK, 10 November 2023
Customer Reviews
Interesting
Good narration
Starts off like a usual story re an affair
Took a bit long to get to the true story but ultimately enjoyable
Better than SP, not as good as her early stuff
I’m guessing after Small Pleasures went down so well, Chambers has decided to do another historical drama. It is definitely better than Small Pleasures which I found rather turgid if I’m honest and nothing like her insightful compelling and hilarious earlier books. Shy Creatures is worth a read if you’re at a loose end but I wouldn’t skip others on your reading list for it. Whilst the telling of William’s childhood in reverse is unusual and done excellently, some of the modern stuff revolving around a rather lifeless protagonist of Helen the bland art therapist is less successful. I feel like Helen and Jean from SP are the same character we’ve met before in Chambers’ previous (better) books. She’s good at writing frustrated conformist women but they need a bit more vivacity like Ester in In a Good Light (my favourite!) and some kind of redemption arc like Abigail in Learning to Swim, otherwise whilst they feel very real and relatable, you just can’t invest in them.