'Max Porter is one of my favorite writers in the world. Why? Because he's always asking the most important questions and then finding ways - through innovative structures and that inimitable voice -of answering those questions soulfully, with his full attention, in ways that make the world seem stranger and more dear (or more dear because stranger). He gives his readers, in other words, bursts of new vision.' -- George Saunders

Max Porter has a way of writing unlike anyone else. I loved Shy. I finished it elated and tearful, joyful and terrified, changed by the journey. It moved me and surprised me and that is what I look for in my favourite artists. -- PJ Harvey

Shy is an act of humanity and grace, heightened by its distinctive form and artistry. -- Telegraph - Luke Kennard

Shy is the strangest, most beguiling and affecting of all his books. -- Ian Rankin

A troubled boy's psyche is presented in a shattered mosaic that contains within it the hope of new forms and new beginnings - this is a beautiful and haunting book, and it captures with a great artistry the resonance and rhythms of its era. -- Kevin Barry

Loved this book. A real gut-punch, but with sunlight lurking behind the clouds. -- Richard Osman

Shy is intensely vivid, dark and provocative. Max Porter's writing so striking, rich and evocative. Shy broke my heart and I loved him for it. -- Salena Godden

The troubled boy at the heart of this novel is full of rage and sadness but Max Porter finds tenderness and hope in him. Just beautiful. -- Mariana Enriquez

Max Porter excavates through the mess and tumult of life and of a mind, leaving us with the sharp clarity of poetry, and an emotional core of tender, beautiful prose. -- Andrew Macmillan

I kept thinking of Mrs Dalloway. The comparison seems utterly inappropriate, and yet where else had I experienced a character lift of the page in this way, with such scattered force? And yet also with such choral beauty. It's a prose-bomb, this book; brief and brilliant. -- Samantha Harvey

Living poetry-prose, pulsative, growing, coming of age, borderless in its thinking, boundaryless in its approach, a sonorous document that pulses with lived experience. -- Rachael Allen

There is no other writer quite like him, is there? His consistent ability to control the intersection of form and content, his precision, inventiveness, stylistic radiance and heart. The way Max reveals Shy's fragility without so much as a hint of sentimentality is masterful. It's a book that pushes back against the reductive nature of the now ubiquitous 'trauma plot' and, in doing so, more deeply honours the complexity of its subject. -- Nathan Filer

Max Porter returns with Shy, a short novel that packs a punch. The mind of a teenage boy bursts across the page as he escapes from a home for "disturbed young men" and ventures into the night. Empathetic and energetic, it's a furious damnation of modern Britain. - i-D, Books to be excited for in 2023

There are few writers who can explore the psyche - and also the limits of language to describe it - with the lyricism and economy of Max Porter. The author of Lanny and Grief Is the Thing With Feathers returns with a new novel, Shy, in which we inhabit the mind of a troubled young man who has just left an institution for those who fit that particular description, and is on a one-way track to. salvation? Destruction? And just over 100 pages, it won't take long to find out. - Esquire, Best Books of 2023

Porter's polyphonic tale reveals the inner workings of a troubled mind with measured empathy and humility. - Mr Porter

From the bestselling author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Shy is a novel about guilt, rage, imagination and boyhood. It is about being lost in the dark, and realising you are not alone.