*PRE ORDER 29th August* Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers

This is the pre-order page for the independent bookshop edition of Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures.

Please note that your copy will be available after the publication date, which is the 29th of August 2024!

About Shy Creatures:

A novel about love, family and the joy of freedom from the award-winning
author of Small Pleasures, perfect for fans of Sarah Winman and Maggie
O'Farrell.
In all failed relationships there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.
Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric
hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married
doctor.
One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen's home. A thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard
down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been
shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist,
Helen is determined to discover his story.
Shy Creatures is a life-affirming novel about all the different ways we can be confined,
how ordinary lives are built of delicate layers of experience, the joy of freedom and the
transformative power of kindness.