‘The Expansion Project has echoes of texts such as Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (for the institutional sci-fi) & the plays of Sarah Kane (for the howling emptiness bumping up against the mundane). But @benpester.bsky.social’s fiction is its own beast.' The Expansion Project

Reading -or not reading-in bed with HarryInterruptor. Loving it. @grantabooks.bsky.social

Some nonfiction from Mariana Enriquez. Translated by Megan McDowell. Somebody is Walking on Your Grave.

'A sharp eye for character & a nose for linguistic mischief mark @davetynan.bsky.social’s prose out from the pack…The real pleasures of this collection are the author’s attention to the tiny twists that send our lives spinning’ We Used to Dance Here www.the-tls.com/literature/f...

'If you're experimenting with things, you're always writing against the culture' Goldsmiths Prize 2017 winner Nicola Barker talks to @tanjilrashid.bsky.social about piecing the novel back together again after H(A)PPY, and much else . . . podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Excellent interview with @benpester.bsky.social.

'@davetynan.bsky.social brilliantly captures romantic longing, including in men – a rarity in contemporary fiction…Tynan’s stories effectively explore modern masculinity but also convincingly portray female characters…His societal observations are spot-on’ The Irish Times on We Used to Dance Here

A unique, searing voice, and exceptionally good:

‘A debut novel with echoes of Kafka, Flaubert & the office sitcom… Both poignant & disconcerting… Beautifully observed… A fever dream of a novel – disconcerting, strange & unexpectedly touching’ Terrific review of @benpester.bsky.social's The Expansion Project in @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

‘Sharp, funny & vivid, these stories are brilliantly attuned to the messiness of life.’ @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social ‘Gritty & soulful, spiky & incisive...A memorable debut collection.’ @colinbarrett.bsky.social @davetynan.bsky.social's We Used to Dance Here published today.

'Smartly skewering artistic & intellectual pretensions...Offers her readers much to contemplate about honesty, the influence of social media, authenticity & relationships, at the same time making them laugh & wince in recognition.' TonyInterruptor By Nicola Barker

'@catherinelacey.bsky.social was named as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2017, and rightly so – this new one runs the emotional gamut.' The Möbius Book 'Best Books to Read in 2025' www.telegraph.co.uk/books/author...

'@benpester.bsky.social’s debut novel is truly brilliant, both a satire on office culture and a bizarre thriller.' The Expansion Project 'Best Books to Read in 2025' www.telegraph.co.uk/books/author...

@waidner.bsky.social @koernputer.bsky.social @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social I have finished! I really really like it, and I have read most of her books. It’s kind of like a concentrated Nicola Barker with some of her themes revisited but still fresh and sharp. One of her best.

'You’re always trying to write what you don’t feel is out in the world already. Dave Tynan's We Used to Dance Here will be out in the world this Thursday!

Nicola Barker's TonyInterruptor 'Heading up' in the Sunday Times 'Style Barometer'. 🔥🎺🔥🎺🔥🎺

Stunning window dispaly for a stunning novel! Thanks @foylesforbooks.bsky.social.

Nicola Barker & @waidner.bsky.social discussing TonyInterruptor tonight at @foylesforbooks.bsky.social. Wonderful event.

'[Nicola Barker's] is a maximalism that earns its keep by virtue of its easygoing openness to risk…It shouldn’t be so much fun to read, but it is. The author gets special dispensation from the Gods of Good Style…A kind of crackpot balance is achieved' So many fab lines in this review by Nat Segnit!

‘Nicola Barker is the kind of novelist to arouse a baffled envy in the reader...The novel is both loose & tight, at its ease & willed… As elegant as it is quietly moving. TonyInterruptor is an eccentric triumph’ Terrific review in the @thetls.bsky.social 🎺🎺🎺🎺 www.the-tls.com/literature/f...

Finished Vanishing World by Sayaka Murara translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. A world in which the norms of sex, family, marriage, pregnancy are all topsy turvy in a big F You to societal conventions. Again, she is transgressive and calmly shocking in a psycho way.

Coming to the end of a crazy four months of publishing but v. proud of every one of these singularly brilliant authors. Sayaka Murata Issa Quincy Irene Solà @catherinelacey.bsky.social Liadan Ní Chuinn Nicola Barker @benpester.bsky.social @davetynan.bsky.social

'@davetynan.bsky.social moves persuasively between male & female viewpoints...Dublin is the downbeat setting…lifted by Tynan’s fine eye for the telling detail, his terse & exact dialogue & exquisite descriptions’ Financial Times on We Used to Dance Here

‘Inside the closed world of the novel, [@benpester.bsky.social] has succeeded in creating an extreme “drowning out” of the normal sounds of human life & activity. [A] vision of a genuinely soul-sucking workplace… Magical, folk horror-informed & time-twisting' Financial Times The Expansion Project

‘Pounds with dark energy, the prose as hypnotic as the dance music that pulses from clubs’ Daily Mail We Used to Dance Here by @davetynan.bsky.social is published next week!

'This funny, inventive & unsettling debut has elements of J.G. Ballard as well as Stephen King, plus cringeworthy workplace comedy made familiar by The Office.' The Expansion Project by @benpester.bsky.social www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/a...

Hear hear

@foylesforbooks.bsky.social got the memo! Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor published today and Foyles is doing it proud!

Two of my favourite books of the year being published today! TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker The Expansion Project by Ben Pester *PersonalSuperThursday*

Baby’s first Nicola Barker (I’ve always meant to read her!): TonyInterruptor is a great, silly, ridiculous, profound book on art, life, culture - and love!

@benpester.bsky.social, having signed copies of The Expansion Project (which is published tomorrow), takes a stroll in the beautiful grounds of Capmeadow (in, er, @foylesforbooks.bsky.social).

Welcome to Capmeadow Business Park (currently residing in @foylesforbooks.bsky.social Charing Cross Road). The Expansion Project

'A new novel from Nicola Barker is always an event.' Nicola Barker discusses her new novel TonyInterruptor with Samira Ahmed (starts at 16mins, 31 Seconds). www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

‘Phenomenally good...Bristles with pain, compassion and controlled fury… Brilliant’ Every One Still Here www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainmen...

'If you only read one book this week, make it TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker' The week in raves! www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

‘Donnie Darko has a fifth act so startling it carries that glancing flash of meaning that can only come with poetry. You feel raw almost, and heat-high by the end.' Let’s Eat Grandma, ‘Donnie Darko’ - Ben Pester’s Expansion Project Playlist buff.ly/BAVIVNi

I’ve read this book. It’s terrific. Nicola Barker (along with Ali Smith and Peter Carey) is one of my three favorite writers in the world. She’s a proper genius, to use the overused. But more, she’s a *fun* genius. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Nicola Barker is one of the most daringly original and entertaining authors of our young 21st century and not nearly praised or read enough. Do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books - you won't be disappointed!

‘Surreal & unsettling…With a steely commitment to its outlandish form & plot, @benpester.bsky.social’s novel is as nebulous, mind-bending & delightfully strange as the workplace it describes.’ The Expansion Project observer.co.uk/culture/book...

‘A witty, hyperactive satire on art & authenticity…An out-of-the-ordinary author doing what others don’t’ TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Ben Pester's surreal new book is a "horror novel about office work" where the monster is a business park. Here he takes us through the songs he played while writing and the songs the book seems to summon for him now it's finished Ben Pester’s Expansion Project Playlist buff.ly/BAVIVNi

She’s one of the best!

‘A comic masterpiece… Revelatory & compulsively creative…This is smart, calculated, musical prose...TonyInterruptor is as obtrusive as it is resplendent. It demands to be read’ (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) Another rave for the one and only Nicola Barker! www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

'Barrelling onto the short story scene is Every One Still Here...[Liadan] Ní Chuinn brings a fresh, unflinching voice to their precise, thoughtful & deeply affecting book...This one will linger long after the final page.' www.service95.com/best-new-boo...

‘Brilliantly over-the-top...This is satire that sees right through you, but forgives you & teaches you to forgive yourself. It’s that rare thing, a serious work of art that is also a giddy confection: a vehicle of pure delight’ TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

‘Splendidly inventive…The tricksiness & elusiveness of @benpester.bsky.social’s technique makes the reading experience abundantly worth it. The Expansion Project is a wonderfully strange & haunting book’ Literary Review

‘TonyInterruptor is a novel of hectic questions and formal tricks...Nicola Barker is our laureate of the edge. This, her latest dispatch from the periphery, is a brilliant, if bewildering, novel with an eccentric take on the many ways we fail to live our lives honestly’ Literary Review

Nice to wake up to a 5 star review of @benpester.bsky.social's The Expansion Project. From the brilliant Camilla Grudova, no less. ‘A tour de force in surrealist comedy…The Expansion Project is a novel about dislocation that feels dislocating' www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

“What has happened in the past is still playing out now.” New online — Tolka editor Catherine Hearn spoke to Liadan Ní Chuinn about their debut short story collection Every One Still Here, published by @grantabooks.bsky.social and @stingingfly.bsky.social. www.tolkajournal.org/read-online/...

'An original, compassionate exploration of grief, faith, forgiveness, heritage & the foundations of shared humanity…Dark or deadpan humour sits alongside insights of dazzling precision & poignancy' Another rave for Liadan Ní Chuinn’s Every One Still Here. www.the-tls.com/literature/f...