Our Bookshelf
Browse our Bookshelves, selected annually by the Exchange as a window to recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.
‘A sweeping saga of lives on the margins over twenty years … Plesera is a quiet, heartening triumph of a novel.’Mike Parker (translated)
‘…a daring and harrowing novel. An engaging and intelligent treatment of gender identity, of grief and love, and of creativity.’Aled Islwyn, Barn (translated)
A profound, moving slice of Welsh-language fictionRhianon Holley, Buzz Magazine
Plesera(to pleasure)
A queer coming of age story, set in a north Wales beach town over the course of 20 years.
Two young boys meet in 1999, both recognising something in the other, both finding solace in each other’s company. Plesera follows them over the course of the next twenty years as they grow up, grow apart, find different ways of coping or not coping. Coming out as gay in a small, rural community; leaving home and coming back; finding purpose, treading water.
As well as a queer coming of age story, the story traces the richly developed secondary storylines of the women in both young men’s lives. Adam has lost his parents in a car accident, and is cared for by his aunt, Kate, a woman who had not wanted to be a mother, who has her sister’s child thrust upon her. Dewi’s mother, Bethan, forms a close bond with Adam even as Adam and Dewi’s relationship mutates.
A novel exploring themes of loss, class, desire, grief, language and friendship. Set in west Wales, this is a story that will transcend time and place.
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Y Lolfa ()
Y Lolfa (23/06/2026)
ISBN 9781800998476
224pp
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Y Lolfa ()
garmon@ylolfa.com
Reviews
‘A sweeping saga of lives on the margins over twenty years … Plesera is a quiet, heartening triumph of a novel.’
Mike Parker (translated)Read more reviews