Bottled Goods (Fairlight Moderns)

Longlisted for The Women's Prize for Fiction 2019, The Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 and The People's Book Prize 2018.

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 1970's communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles, that can't be put down.

'Enjoyable to read' –Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

'A story to savour, to smile at, to rage against and to weep over' –Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk

'A masterful blend of the political and the personal, the magical and the mundane, the historical and the hyperbolic' –Ingrid Jendrzejewski, editor-in-chief of FlashBack Fiction

'Sophie van Llewyn has brought light into an era which cast a long shadow' –Joanna Campbell, author of Instructions for the Working Day

'A dizzying, daring window on life in Ceausescu's Romania' –Stephanie Hutton, author of Three Sisters of Stone

'Sophie van Llewyn's stunning debut novella shows us there is no dystopian fiction as frightening as that which draws on history' –Christina Dalcher, author of VOX

'A must-read by a masterful writer' – Christopher Allen, author of Other Household Toxins