Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE

A Granta Best Young British Novelist

'A thrilling love for the stuff of language … Magical' — JON McGREGOR

‘Poignant and playful’ — DAILY MAIL

‘A writer with few real rivals’ — IRISH TIMES

'A visionary writer' — JAN CARSON

The stunning new collection of stories from the award-winning author of The Liar’s Dictionary and Attrib. and Other Stories.

Granta Best Young British novelist and acclaimed author of Attrib. and other stories, Eley Williams returns with a thrilling collection of short stories exploring the nature of relationships both intimate and transient – from the easy gamesmanship of contagious yawns to the horror of a smile fixed for just a second too long.

A courtroom sketch artist delights in committing portraits of their lover to paper, but their need to capture likenesses forever is revealed to have darker, more complex intentions. A child’s schoolyard crush on a saint marks a confrontation with the reality of a teenage body in flux. Elsewhere, an editor of canned laughter loses their confidence and seeks divine intervention, and an essayist annotates their thoughts on Keats by way of internet-gleaned sex tips.

Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good hums with fossicking language and ingenious experiments in form and considers notions of playfulness, authenticity, and care as it holds relationships to account: their sweet misunderstandings, soured reflections, queer wish fulfilments, and shared, held breaths.

‘Undeniably a skilful book’ — TELEGRAPH

‘Stories that work from the inside out… glancing, intriguing’ — GUARDIAN

'Erudite and audacious' — KEIRAN GODDARD

‘Frequently brilliant and deeply pleasurable’ — CAOILINN HUGHES

‘I don’t know anyone else who can write like this … What a joy!' — BEN PESTER

‘A joy for the head and the heart' — RUBY COWLING