The narrative unfolds through an email from a young woman to her estate agent, offering a unique format for this debut longform fiction by artist and poet Ella Frears. Known for her acclaimed poetry collection, Frears explores themes of communication and personal connection in a modern context. The story promises to delve into the intricacies of relationships and the challenges of navigating life, blending wit and insight in a fresh literary approach.
Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2020 Ella Frears's debut is a collection of wry, vivid poems whose power lies in their intimacy. They are as insistent as they are circumspect, drawing close to the readers ear and bringing them into confidence. The engine of Shine, Darling is one of strength, of fortitude in confronting and surviving the world, of a lifted-chin audacity There was pain, the speaker allows, but it was not new pain. Frears's work is world-weathered rather than world-weary, delighted by service stations, f**king on bins in Cornwall, in constant communion with the moon. It lives for the power-play of people, of the pull of the sea, the smoky air Stormy, sticky with flies and tangled underbrush where the land ends. Her characters test each other, experimenting with the boundaries of physical violence, of punishment, of traps, all the while drawing the reader into a complicity that gives these poems all their daring, electrifying muscularity. In Shine, Darling, the desire to expose and disclose wrestles with defence and defiance. The result is exhilarating, a glorious full-bodied debut collection with the draw of an adamant tide