Our Bookshelf
Browse our Bookshelves, selected annually by the Exchange as a window to recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.
“A gentle and tender novel about the power of forgiveness and how humans might thrive when given the space to grow. Richly rewarding fiction.”
Kirsty Capes, author of Careless and Girls
“This book is extraordinary. Full of love and loss, grief and kindness... this will absolutely tug at your soul. It’s not a long book but it’s a book to revel in and savour, one to re-read and treasure... glorious and heart-breaking and yet, ultimately full of hope.”
Liz Hyder, author of The Twelve
“An assured, sensitively told tale... The real power of the story, however, is not in the cause, but its effect as, having finally been freed in their various ways from the constraints of traditional family models and expectations, all three women develop the strength and knowledge to shape their own desires and destinies.”
Marie Claire
“A sensuous and tender tale of love, loss and secrets...This is one of those novels that you can devour in a day but lingers long in the memory.”
Buzz Magazine
“While Bitter Honey is a story built on loss, identity is at its heart, alongside a simple reassurance that it is never too late to find yourself, and let others find you, too.”
Press Association
Bitter Honey
An extraordinary novel from the multi award-winning author of Drift.
Hannah has lived at Berllan Deg all her life; her husband came to live at the orchard when they got married. Tonight, she prepares for his funeral as he lies in the parlour. Over fifty years of marriage, a lifetime of memories dissipating in the impossibility of his stillness. He was a writer and a beekeeper who came to understand the world through the language of bees. He has left her eleven letters; the exact same number as there are frames in a bee’s nest. Each letter is an examination of an aspect of their marriage. The morning of the funeral, Sadie, Hannah’s estranged little sister comes back home for the service. As the letters unfold, they reveal a devastating secret that will make Hannah have to re-evaluate her whole life.
Bitter Honey brings three very different women together into a broken Eden and examines how they rebuild it on their own terms. In the hands of one of Wales’ foremost literary talents, love, loss and identity are explored to heartrending, enduring effect.
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Doubleday (2025)
978-0857527899
240pp
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Doubleday (2025)
Lucy Beresford-Knox, Transworld Rights Director, Penguin Random House:
LBeresford-Knox@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
German rights sold to Klett Cotta
Reviews
“A gentle and tender novel about the power of forgiveness and how humans might thrive when given the space to grow. Richly rewarding fiction.”
Read more reviewsKirsty Capes, author of Careless and Girls