Martin Shaw
@thebooksdesk.bsky.social
Literary agent @shawliterary.bsky.social, formerly head book buyer at Readings Books, Melbourne. Kafka, Sebald, the Antipodes.
Friday evenig motets in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig
December 5, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Friday evenig motets in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig
Nuremberg comes to Leipzig! @derbren.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Nuremberg comes to Leipzig! @derbren.bsky.social
Takes you back to European history at uni!
November 27, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Takes you back to European history at uni!
Guest arriving tomorrow & staying for a few weeks. The question is: do the books on the sofa (“the pile”) have to make way? #BookManners
November 26, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Guest arriving tomorrow & staying for a few weeks. The question is: do the books on the sofa (“the pile”) have to make way? #BookManners
And that, folks, was that:@shawliterary.bsky.social's 2025 season! There was so much satisfaction for me this year, with some absolute blinders both on debut & from some old hands! It's always lovely to have some Kiwi authors in the mix, too. Thanks so much then everyone for all your support!
November 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
And that, folks, was that:@shawliterary.bsky.social's 2025 season! There was so much satisfaction for me this year, with some absolute blinders both on debut & from some old hands! It's always lovely to have some Kiwi authors in the mix, too. Thanks so much then everyone for all your support!
Agent copies in of the first-ever romcom I’ve handled at the agency! I still suspect I’m a bit too long in the tooth for this sort of thing…but delighted my instincts were sound with Olivia’s debut!
November 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Agent copies in of the first-ever romcom I’ve handled at the agency! I still suspect I’m a bit too long in the tooth for this sort of thing…but delighted my instincts were sound with Olivia’s debut!
First snow of the season!
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 AM
First snow of the season!
The cover of the first edition of Canetti's Die Blendung ("Auto da fé" in the English translation), 1936
November 23, 2025 at 12:23 PM
The cover of the first edition of Canetti's Die Blendung ("Auto da fé" in the English translation), 1936
Leipzig now: thank the lord for German central heating, & double-glazed windows!
November 23, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Leipzig now: thank the lord for German central heating, & double-glazed windows!
-3 degrees out, but the smoko must go on!
November 21, 2025 at 7:11 AM
-3 degrees out, but the smoko must go on!
Feel a bit sorry for Helen that she doubtless had to sign a gazillion of these for @readingsbooks.bsky.social, but I did want to read this! And a handsome production from @textpublishing.bsky.social too, with ribbon marker & all…
November 18, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Feel a bit sorry for Helen that she doubtless had to sign a gazillion of these for @readingsbooks.bsky.social, but I did want to read this! And a handsome production from @textpublishing.bsky.social too, with ribbon marker & all…
Deal news! So delighted to share that Mali Cornish’s second novel, the crazy-good psychological thriller The Missing Mother, will be appearing from Cate Patterson at @atlanticbooks.bsky.social / @allenandunwin.bsky.social in May next year!
November 18, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Deal news! So delighted to share that Mali Cornish’s second novel, the crazy-good psychological thriller The Missing Mother, will be appearing from Cate Patterson at @atlanticbooks.bsky.social / @allenandunwin.bsky.social in May next year!
For those that know, what a reading memory
November 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM
For those that know, what a reading memory
Richard Flanagan on the Tasmanian genocide (& the great OZ silence that surrounds it) is hard to read, & will stay with you; the much-commented final chapter too is extraordinary (& harrowing) on his very-near death in a rafting mishap aged 21: little wonder he seized the day ever after…
November 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Richard Flanagan on the Tasmanian genocide (& the great OZ silence that surrounds it) is hard to read, & will stay with you; the much-commented final chapter too is extraordinary (& harrowing) on his very-near death in a rafting mishap aged 21: little wonder he seized the day ever after…
One of my authors sends me a typewritten postcard every year
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
One of my authors sends me a typewritten postcard every year
Oh this is really cool: I can finally go to Berlin & do sth in the evening and still get home at night (last train now around 11:30 pm instead of 10:30). (& no, before you say it, I’m WAY too old to be pulling all-nighters in Berlin anymore!)
November 11, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Oh this is really cool: I can finally go to Berlin & do sth in the evening and still get home at night (last train now around 11:30 pm instead of 10:30). (& no, before you say it, I’m WAY too old to be pulling all-nighters in Berlin anymore!)
And now I spy the UK cover, coming in July 26 from Hutchinson Heinemann! www.penguin.co.uk/books/476509...
November 7, 2025 at 4:51 PM
And now I spy the UK cover, coming in July 26 from Hutchinson Heinemann! www.penguin.co.uk/books/476509...
Oh that’s funny: Kafka’s The Metamorphosis/Transformation was reviewed at the time of publication as “really lacking imagination & being boring” in one journal
November 4, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Oh that’s funny: Kafka’s The Metamorphosis/Transformation was reviewed at the time of publication as “really lacking imagination & being boring” in one journal
Reminded of my partner saying recently (in response to my latest entreaty of love & adoration for her): “No you don’t, you love Franz Kafka!” #Kafkaphilia
November 4, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reminded of my partner saying recently (in response to my latest entreaty of love & adoration for her): “No you don’t, you love Franz Kafka!” #Kafkaphilia
(Via my author Meg Mundell)
Dear Melbourne..these messages are addressed to you ❤
Launched today! HOME TRUTHS: POSTCARDS UNSHELTERED, a street poster exhibition featuring handwritten postcards from Melbourne residents who have been/are currently homeless 🏠
Please share ❤
#HOMETRUTHS #homelessness
Dear Melbourne..these messages are addressed to you ❤
Launched today! HOME TRUTHS: POSTCARDS UNSHELTERED, a street poster exhibition featuring handwritten postcards from Melbourne residents who have been/are currently homeless 🏠
Please share ❤
#HOMETRUTHS #homelessness
November 3, 2025 at 6:26 AM
(Via my author Meg Mundell)
Dear Melbourne..these messages are addressed to you ❤
Launched today! HOME TRUTHS: POSTCARDS UNSHELTERED, a street poster exhibition featuring handwritten postcards from Melbourne residents who have been/are currently homeless 🏠
Please share ❤
#HOMETRUTHS #homelessness
Dear Melbourne..these messages are addressed to you ❤
Launched today! HOME TRUTHS: POSTCARDS UNSHELTERED, a street poster exhibition featuring handwritten postcards from Melbourne residents who have been/are currently homeless 🏠
Please share ❤
#HOMETRUTHS #homelessness
Epigraph, @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social’s All her Lives
October 28, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Epigraph, @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social’s All her Lives
Oh how gorgeous: the @thwupbooks.bsky.social edition of @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social’s wonderful debut story collection just in. Coming to OZ in 2026 as well, from UQP!
October 28, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Oh how gorgeous: the @thwupbooks.bsky.social edition of @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social’s wonderful debut story collection just in. Coming to OZ in 2026 as well, from UQP!
Oh, just realised that Jen Craig’s comparison here might not fall on such deaf ears anymore, now that everyone now knows who László is!
October 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Oh, just realised that Jen Craig’s comparison here might not fall on such deaf ears anymore, now that everyone now knows who László is!
Aside of course from his masterly Perec translations, what a marvellous biography this was. RIP David Bellos.
October 27, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Aside of course from his masterly Perec translations, what a marvellous biography this was. RIP David Bellos.
A really fine short overview of Alexis Wright’s work this from Geordie Williamson - with a revealing postscript too explaining why her work is so important to him. As a journalist once told him about his family’s involvement on Easter Island: “Know this: your family weren’t the good guys…”
October 26, 2025 at 8:25 PM
A really fine short overview of Alexis Wright’s work this from Geordie Williamson - with a revealing postscript too explaining why her work is so important to him. As a journalist once told him about his family’s involvement on Easter Island: “Know this: your family weren’t the good guys…”