The Shards

' The Shards isn’t just Ellis’s strongest novel since the 90s, it’s a full-spectrum triumph , incorporating and subverting everything he’s done before and giving us, if we follow the book’s ingenious, gleefully self-aware conceit , nothing less than the Ellis origin story' - Sam Byers, Guardian

' The Shards isn’t just Ellis’s strongest novel since the 90s, it’s a full-spectrum triumph , incorporating and subverting everything he’s done before and giving us, if we follow the book’s ingenious, gleefully self-aware conceit , nothing less than the Ellis origin story' - Sam Byers, Guardian

‘The Shards reads like a Karl Ove Knausgård novel spliced with a Dario Argento movie … an inspired 1980s fever dream of a book, nostalgic and lustful and ecstatic , as well as a loving act of pop-cultural conservation … what a charm to find that The Shards is as vital as anything he’s ever written – and it’s the one all the other BEE novels are about’ - Rob Doyle, Observer

‘A tale of sexed-up, drug-guzzling privileged high school students in the early 1980s … Glossy and grotesque ’ - The Times

‘It’s Ellis’s definitive work : his own origin story’ David Sexton, Sunday Times

‘ If you like Bret Easton Ellis novels you’ll love this … queasily gripping, strikingly heartfelt, and a whole lot of fun ’ - Alex Bilmes, Esquire

'The author of American Psycho returns in characteristic, high-octane, disturbing style ... Welcome back, Mr Easton Ellis ’ - Harper’s Bazaar

'A thrilling fusion of classic crime noir, pop culture porn and new wave gloss , The Shards is the pinnacle of Bret Easton Ellis’ creative career and everything we have come to hope, expect and fear from him' - Benjamin Myers

'An atmospheric investigation into our shadow selves' - Guardian Best Brilliant Summer Reads 2023

'I love Bret Easton Ellis’s novels, but there’s something truly singular about The Shards . This is the story about a young man in his senior year of high school in L.A. in 1981, and his obsession with a strange and charismatic new schoolmate. Brilliant, labyrinthine, and scary as hell' - Mona Awad, author of We Love You, Bunny

Bret Easton Ellis is also the author of American Psycho, Glamorama, The Informers, Less Than Zero, Lunar Park and The Rules of Attraction. His work has been translated into twenty-seven languages. He lives in Los Angeles.