Shy
By: Max Porter
3.63
Format: 136 pages, Hardcover
A novel about guilt, rage, imagination, and boyhood, about being lost in the dark and learning you’…
Want to Read $ 9.99"He could learn to speak this language: night-end."-Max Porter, Shy
"He feels colossally sad. Blisteringly sad. Almost ecstatically sad."-Max Porter, Shy
"Shy said It's our music, coming out of our shit towns, it's not from Staten Island or Seattle or Detroit, it's from Walsall and Watford. Shaun and his mate Andy burst out laughing and Andy did a squeaky voice and said Fwom Wycombe and Weading and... Wochdale and Shy said Fuck off Andy, and Shaun said Argh man, learn to take a joke, yeah?"-Max Porter, Shy
"He smells of pond. Everything smells of pond. He feels like he could sniff his way into individual microbes, earthy worming growgreen liquid stink, newts and shoots, silty, fruity, and as he walks he gathers in the smell of dry leaves, crinkly things, brown oily smells, good rot, herby hydro deep woodlousey sticky mushroom smells, things turning, things that go on smelling this way whether or not a wet teenager is here to smell them. He is all sense. He isn't having any thoughts, he's all smell and shadows and ruined trainers, a frighteningly awake sleep creature sloshing along."-Max Porter, Shy
If you liked the fiction plot in Shy by Max Porter , here is a list of 20 books like this:
1. Antarctica
By: Claire Keegan
3.86
Format: 224 pages, Paperback
Published to great critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, the iridescent stories in Claire… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Antarctica book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
"That's the way it is in our house, everybody knowing things but pretending they don't."-Claire Keegan, Antarctica
"I run the house now. The last man who said I was old enough got scalded. My mother always said there was nothing as bad as a burn. And she was right. It's turning out that I'm taking no nonsense from…"-Claire Keegan, Antarctica
"Whatever you say, I'll manage. I will live out of a water barrel and check the skies. I will learn fifteen types of wind and know the weight of tomorrow's rain by the rustle in the sycamores. Make ne…"-Claire Keegan, Antarctica
2. Foster
By: Claire Keegan
3.92
Format: 256 pages, Paperback
A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when s… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Claire Keegan's Foster book and Max Porter's Shy
3. Greek Lessons
By: Han Kang
3.47
Format: 192 pages, Hardcover
A powerful novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, from the author of the In… read more
Want to Read $ 5.99Similar categories in Han Kang's Greek Lessons book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"If snow is the silence that falls from the sky, perhaps rain is an endless sentence."-Han Kang, Greek Lessons
"Si tomamos como cierta la premisa que dice que, cuando perdemos algo, ganamos otra cosa, ¿Qué es lo que he ganado yo al perderte a ti?."-Han Kang, Greek Lessons
"Before she lost words - when she was still able to se them to write - she sometimes wished that her own expressions would more closely resemble inarticulacy: a moan or low cry."-Han Kang, Greek Lessons
"To her, there was no touch as instantaneous and intuitive as the gaze. It was close to being the only way of touching without touch. Language, by comparison, is an infinitely more physical way to tou…"-Han Kang, Greek Lessons
4. Prophet Song
By: Paul Lynch
4.10
Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition
A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more
Want to Read $ 9.10Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
5. Old God's Time
By: Sebastian Barry
3.85
Format: 261 pages, Hardcover
From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author, a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Sebastian Barry's Old God's Time book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-se immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-de immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"No one minds life as long as they are not trying to leave it. Nor death, as long as they are not dying."-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
6. Kairos
By: Jenny Erpenbeck
3.46
Format: 379 pages, Hardcover
Die neunzehnjährige Katharina und Hans, ein verheirateter Mann Mitte fünfzig, begegnen sich Ende de… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
"She would like a shallow life, swift and shallow, till some day she can start again. Get through her time fast until then. And when will that be? Then."-Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos
7. Shy
By: Max Porter
3.63
Format: 136 pages, Hardcover
A novel about guilt, rage, imagination, and boyhood, about being lost in the dark and learning you’… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Max Porter's Shy book and Max Porter's Shy
- poetry
- literary fiction
- british literature
- literature
- novella
- mental health
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"He could learn to speak this language: night-end."-Max Porter, Shy
"He feels colossally sad. Blisteringly sad. Almost ecstatically sad."-Max Porter, Shy
"Shy said It's our music, coming out of our shit towns, it's not from Staten Island or Seattle or Detroit, it's from Walsall and Watford. Shaun and his mate Andy burst out laughing and Andy did a sque…"-Max Porter, Shy
"He smells of pond. Everything smells of pond. He feels like he could sniff his way into individual microbes, earthy worming growgreen liquid stink, newts and shoots, silty, fruity, and as he walks he…"-Max Porter, Shy
8. Close to Home
By: Michael Magee
4.06
Format: 288 pages, Hardcover
While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does everything he's supposed to do. He works hard, he stud… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Michael Magee's Close to Home book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
9. So Late in the Day
By: Claire Keegan
4.00
Format: 47 pages, Hardcover
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the b… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- novella
- fiction
- contemporary
- audiobook
10. August Blue
By: Deborah Levy
3.68
Format: 208 pages, Hardcover
A new novel from the Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy, the celebrated author of The Man Who Saw E… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Deborah Levy's August Blue book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- british literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"We agreed that whatever happened next in the world, we would still rub conditioner into our hair after we washed it and comb it through to the ends, we would soften our lips with rose-, strawberry-, …"-Deborah Levy, August Blue
11. Pity
By: Andrew McMillan
3.71
Format: 192 pages, Kindle Edition
The town was once a hub of industry. A place where men toiled underground in darkness, picking and … read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Andrew McMillan's Pity book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
12. Wild Houses
By: Colin Barrett
3.78
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A darkly funny and deeply moving debut novel about crimes of desperation, dreams abandoned, and sma… read more
Want to Read $ 16.14Similar categories in Colin Barrett's Wild Houses book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"What you are in, Dev, is a holding pattern, only you're not holding out for anything."-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses
"All boys, all children, are capable of cruelty at the right juncture of opportunity and circumstance, but only a few become committed prodigies of sadism..."-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses
"In the dream, exactly as he had in real life, he sensed the slow, inexorable approach of the shapeless, prospectless days to come, days when there would be no need to get out of bed or brush his teet…"-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses
"He looked around the empty kitchen. A part of him wanted this of course. A part of him had always wanted this, to be alone, away from even the prospect of any demand upon him to talk, to interact, to…"-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses
13. Soldier Sailor
By: Claire Kilroy
4.10
Format: 256 pages, ebook
Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another's arms. The Earth rotates beneath us… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"I laughed and then we were doing that thing again, our thing: laughing into one another's eyes. All that time I had thought I was jollying you along when all that time you were jollying along me."-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor
"I tell my husband about my childhood and he tells me about his but it isn't the same. We can never know each other as we were then. But I know you. I will see the child you were in the man you will b…"-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor
"Hated cling film. Hated it more than I hated kinetic sand. Defeated by something that lacked a third dimension. While I'd been off tinkering on the cerebral plane, the smart money has been mastering …"-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor
"I knelt down to pick up the hatchling to . . . . what? Give it back to its mother? Here is your dying chick? Just before I made contact with it, she dive-bombed me. The mother actually dive-bombed me…"-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor
14. I'm a Fan
By: Sheena Patel
3.32
Format: 207 pages, None
In I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithfu… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Sheena Patel's I'm a Fan book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- british literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"It is toxic. I am familiar"-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan
"Happiness or safety. Or isn't that the same thing?"-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan
"I never came with him. I never felt safe enough to."-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan
"The world is made for couples. Even the unhappy ones."-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan
15. Ordinary Human Failings
By: Megan Nolan
3.78
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about thei… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Megan Nolan's Ordinary Human Failings book and Max Porter's Shy
- audiobook
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
"She loved the feeling of doing something on her own, and doing it in a routine. It felt thrillingly adult and affirmed her most cherished hope, the hope that she might have an actual inner life of su…"-Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings
"He had the sort of bland, agreeable, rosy face which could disappear into whatever context he wished it to. He was blond but not provocatively so. The naturally dull Kent accent could be clipped and …"-Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings
16. Study for Obedience
By: Sarah Bernstein
3.05
Format: 192 pages, Hardcover
A haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction. A young w… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Sarah Bernstein's Study for Obedience book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"I try always to be good."-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience
"How, I wondered, might a person, a people, take root, roots and rootlessness, the preservation of what little remains of the past, such were thoughts that blew through me on any given morning, standi…"-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience
"In taking a side, I thought uneasily, perhaps I ought to take the long view, the survival of the species as a whole. That was my problem, I thought, I was always thinking at the level of the individu…"-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience
"I had hoped that here in the country I would experience the turn of the seasons differently, with less apprehension, I might come to see the form and plan of the world. Not to frame it within systems…"-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience
17. Western Lane
By: Chetna Maroo
3.51
Format: 160 pages, Hardcover
Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize A taut, enthralling first novel about grief, sisterhood, a… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Chetna Maroo's Western Lane book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- british literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
18. Headshot
By: Rita Bullwinkel
3.63
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical inti… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"Tanya Maw's sister is two years older, the perfect age gap for wisdom transmission."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent's eyes."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
"It's a warmth that she'll feel again very few times in her life. It's almost like love, but it has a surer, less desperate edge to it."-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
19. Pearl
By: Siân Hughes
3.91
Format: 220 pages, Paperback
A haunting debut novel inspired by the medieval poem of the same name Marianne is eight years ol… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Siân Hughes's Pearl book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- british literature
- mental health
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
20. Orbital
By: Samantha Harvey
3.73
Format: 207 pages, Hardcover
A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men … read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Samantha Harvey's Orbital book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- novella
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- audiobook
"Maybe we're the new dinosaurs and need to watch out."-Samantha Harvey, Orbital
"The past comes, the future, the past, the future. It's always now, it's never now."-Samantha Harvey, Orbital
"Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters."-Samantha Harvey, Orbital
"That's all this great human endeavor of space exploration really is, he thinks, an animal migration, a bid for survival. A looping song sent into the open, a territorial animal song."-Samantha Harvey, Orbital
21. What I'd Rather Not Think About
By: Jente Posthuma
3.77
Format: 224 pages, Paperback
What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without t… read more
Want to Read $ 14.25Similar categories in Jente Posthuma's What I'd Rather Not Think About book and Max Porter's Shy
- literary fiction
- literature
- mental health
- fiction
- contemporary
"Cracks in the ground aren't always visible to the naked eye. Every movement has the potential to take you down."-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About
"This was shocking to me, because if the oldest person I knew understood even less about the world than I did, then how was it possible that other adults had all the answers? And what was the point of…"-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About
"To be a natural presence, you shouldn't take up too much space, which I always found easy at the beginning of a friendship. It felt nice to reshape myself into precisely the right format until the mo…"-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About
