Author(s): Keith Ridgway

Novel | London | Humour & Satire | LGBTQI+

A Shock inhabits the secret life of a city, its hidden energies. It dramatizes how patterns form and then disperse, how stories are made and relationships created . . . remarkable' - Colm Tóibín'Political, pertinent, spunky and funny, A Shock is a grand sweep of modern storytelling' - June Caldwell In A Shock, a clutch of more or less loosely connected characters appear, disappear and reappear. They are all of them on the fringes of London life, often clinging on – to sanity or solvency or a story – by their fingertips. Keith Ridgway, author of the acclaimed Hawthorn & Child, writes about people whose understanding of their own situation is only ever partial and fuzzy, who are consumed by emotions and anxieties and narratives, or the lack thereof, that they cannot master. He focuses on peripheral figures who mean well and to whom things happen, and happen confusingly, and his fictional strategies reflect this focus. In a deftly conjured high-wire act, Ridgway achieves the fine balance between the imperatives of drama and fidelity to his characters. The result is pin-sharp and often breathtaking. A Shock is a perfect, living circle of beauty and mystery, clearsighted and compassionate, and, at times, wonderfully funny’ - David Hayden

Like Finnegans Wake, only readable. * The Times *
Ingeniously slippery . . . an expertly constructed house of mirrors -- Lucy Scholes * New York Times Book Review *
A sultry, steamy shock of a novel . . . a provocative collection of nine interlinked stories, jostled together like neighbours on a London street or regulars in a pub, which is where most of his characters cross paths * The Spectator *
Keith Ridgway's gifts as a writer are many: his complex, vivid characters, his ability to create a humane and tender cityscape in an unfeeling metropolis, and to dig into our fallibilities and desires with such humour and compassion -- Sinead Gleeson
Endlessly interesting -- Anthony Cummins * The Observer *
Keith Ridgway is an incredible writer and A Shock is a wonder . . . There were times, reading this book, that I never wanted it to end -- Chris Power, author of Mothers
A Shock is a meticulously crafted diorama * Vanity Fair *
A great and generous book, an incomparable achievement -- Richard Beard
Simply imagine being as good at anything as Keith Ridgway is at writing -- Nicole Flattery on Keith Ridgway
Readers are instantly involved in the action of Ridgway's worlds, the characters he writes with great compassion and clarity, and always with an awareness of the fuzziness of being alive -- Sarah Gilmartin * Irish Times *
Flows over with invention and imagination -- John Self * The Irish Times *
In this playful yet deeply sincere novel, Ridgway squeezes into the gaps of realism and makes something beautifully new * Guardian *

Prizes: Winner of James Tait Black Prize for Fiction 2022 (UK). Short-listed for The Goldsmiths Prize 2021 (UK).

Author Biography: Keith Ridgway is from Dublin, and lives in London. A Shock is his fifth novel.