Bottled Goods

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 

Longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 

Longlisted for the People’s Book Prize 

Available in the UK from Fairlight Books, in the USA and Canada from HarperCollins. Translated into Italian & Romanian 

You can find it…

On Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38720267-bottled-goods

On the Fairlight Books website: http://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/bottled-goods/

On the Harper Collins website: Bottled Goods

On Amazon: Bottled Goods

On Audible: Bottled Goods 

Available in Italy from Keller Editore: Bottigliette 

Available in Romania from Litera : Sâmbăta în care totul s-a schimbat

When Alina’s brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her husband become persons of interest to the secret services, causing both of their careers to come grinding to a halt.

As the strain takes its toll on their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for help – the wife of a communist leader and a secret practitioner of the old folk ways.

Set in 1970s communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles.

Publication Date: 11 July 2018

Praise for Bottled Goods:

A lovely, funny, sad and informative book…It almost reads like a Wes Anderson film

Dolly Alderton, The High Low

An assured debut which is part-absurdist, part-thriller, part-social realism. If you’re looking for intrigue, psychological depth and the darkly comic in a book that can be read in one hour, this is for you.

Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 judges

This stunning historical novella […] is both tense and atmospheric

Mslexia

I read Bottled Goods with my heart in my mouth. A seductive blend of beauty and terror, grim realism and triumphant magic, it is a story to savour, to smile at, to rage against and to weep over. I loved this book, and Alina’s battles with belief, folklore, love and the sour lack of it will stay with me for a very long time.

Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk

Sophie van Llewyn writes masterful and inventively structured in titled flash fiction ‘chapters’ which stand alone, yet work together to  create a compelling drama. I loved the magical realism strand in the novella, which adds further layers to life in Romania and Alina’s relationship with her mother. This is an impressive debut in the tradition of Eastern European Absurdist fiction.’

Jude Higgins, writing events organiser, tutor and author of The Chemist’s House

Sophie van Llewyn’s stunning debut novella shows us there is no dystopian fiction as frightening as that which draws on history. Lyrical, magical, and yet thoroughly grounded in the reality of communist Romania, the fifty-one short pieces in Bottled Goods contribute to a rich and colorful tapestry. Van Llewyn weaves in layer upon layer, playing with words and forms to deliver the powerful story of one woman’s quest for political and personal freedom.

Christina Dalcher, author of VOX

Sophie van Llewyn weaves a delicate thread of magic realism throughout this spellbinding story of the brutalities underpinning daily life in Communist Romania. The author draws an intricate picture of The Cold War’s shortages and propaganda, with captivating details of Romanian food and folklore, friendship and family life.

Joanna Campbell, author of When Planets Slip Their Tracks

In Bottled Goods, Sophie van Llewyn deftly recreates the anxious mood of Communist Romania in a series of 51 brief narratives. A tour de force, a harrowing and ultimately triumphant story, a must-read by a masterful writer. 

Christopher Allen, author of Other Household Toxins

A look behind the Iron Curtain, in a collection deftly created by small scenes from pre-1989 Romania. Each story reveals something of the world Alina lives in – at times tender, at times maddening, at times downright frightening. The uncertainties of life and love, and the insatiable quest for freedom – bottled neatly in a set of stories that captivate and enchant.

Michelle Elvy, editor of Flash Frontier, coordinator of Flash Fiction Day New Zealand

I started reading Bottled Goods on the bus and was so engrossed, I didn’t realise I’d missed my stop until nearly the end of the line.  When I finally looked up, I found myself miles from where I began, both literally and figuratively.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  

Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Editor in Chief, FlashBack Fiction

Sophie Van Llewyn’s novella Bottled Goods is a dizzying, daring window on life in Ceausescu’s Romania. As a counterbalance to the danger that surrounds main character Alina, magical elements of folk ways and the impossible show a family – and country – that won’t be defined by its dictator. Each flash fiction stands firmly on its own feet with beautiful writing and an authentic voice. The total is so much greater than the sum of its parts however, reaching rich depths of what it means to survive: to love, lose, and try to move on.

Stephanie Hutton, author of Three Sisters of Stone 

This beautifully written novella is a lucid and powerfully affecting story set amid the paranoia and treachery of communist Romania. Composed of 51 flash fictions which explore the form in a number of imaginative ways, emotional realism mingles with the magical to tell the story of a woman trying to make a life in the face of poverty, political oppression and dysfunctional family dynamics.

Helen Rye, Winner of the Bath Flash Fiction Award  

The Novella-in-Flash

A novella-in-flash is a novella that consists of independent flash fictions (that it, self-contained stories ranging from 5 to 1,000 words), that function as ‘chapters.’ They are linked, forming a longer story. Think of them as brushstrokes, each of them a touch of colour in themselves — but all in all forming a ‘bigger picture’.

If you wish to read some of these flash fictions, and have a taste of my novella, you can find them here: publications

If you wish to read more about this fascinating form, here is an interview with the publishers of My Very End of the Universe, an anthology of five novellas-in-flash . And here is an interview with Meg Pokrass, author and judge of the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award in 2017 and 2018.