Shelf Life

by Livia Franchini

______________

'An impressive, Sally Rooney-esque debut novel' New Statesman

'Shelf Life is whip-smart, slyly heartbreaking, and I felt the truth of it in my bones. Franchini dissects ideas of love, dating and identity in a way that feels both ruthless and humane. I loved it.'
Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

Launching an intelligent, perceptive new voice in fiction, Shelf Life is the exquisite, heart-wrenching story of a woman rebuilding herself on her own terms.

Ruth is thirty years old. She works as a nurse in a care home and her fiancé has just broken up with her. The only thing she has left of him is their shopping list for the upcoming week.

And so she uses that list to tell her story. Starting with six eggs, and working through spaghetti and strawberries, and apples and tea bags, Ruth discovers that her identity has been crafted from the people she serves; her patients, her friends, and, most of all, her partner of ten years. Without him, she needs to find out – with conditioner and single cream and a lot of sugar – who she is when she stands alone.

'A Bridget Jones for cynical souls' Natasha Bell, author of The Perfect Wife

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Ebooks

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2019

About the author

Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy. She has translated Michael Donaghy, Natalia Ginzburg and James Tiptree Jr. among many others. She is the author of one novel, SHELF LIFE (Transworld, 2019) and one poetry pamphlet, OUR AVAILABLE MAGIC (Makina Books, 2019). The Italian translation of Shelf Life, GUSCI (Mondadori, trans. Veronica Raimo) won the Premio Letterario Pisa first novel award in 2020.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know if I have read a book lately with a blurb this accurate that nonetheless completely failed to give an indication what the book will be like. On the surface it’s correct; yes Ruth has just been left by her boyfriend of ten years and has to navigate her life and yes the story is told by way of the shopping list he left behind – but it also something else entirely. Told in varies formats (stream-of-consciousness in the present, a series of text messages in the past, mixing more straight forward narrations with vague ones) and from different perspectives (mainly Ruth’s perspective in first person, but also parts narrated from Neil’s perspectives, parts in second person, parts in first person plural), this book is a portrait of a woman who was very much broken before she met the awful man and became more so during the course of a fairly horrible relationship.

When the book worked, it really worked for me – but there were just so many parts I could not properly get on board with, starting with the endless accounts of weird dreams Ruth and Neil had. I am unsure I grasped what the narrative purpose of those were and I found them relentlessly boring and confusing. While I appreciated the mixed-media approach, I didn’t love reading text messages that just never ended.

I really liked the framing of the story and I thought Franchini did something very clever: in the first chapter, when Neil breaks up with Ruth I couldn’t help but think that was the right choice because she seemed fairly awful. And then Franchini goes back and recontextualizes the scene in a way that made my heart hurt. Neil is, for all intents and purposes, really really awful. He is not only a cheater but also a stalker, he made Ruth into the person he wanted her to be and then punishes her for it, and his thoughts on women are unkind and horrifying (at some point he says this about his girlfriend of ten years: “The fact of her aging makes me uneasy.”). While I found his characterization believable and him endlessly fascinating, spending time in his head was very much not fun. Ruth on the other hand was just the kind of difficult to root for woman I adore in my fiction. Overall, I found this book impeccably structured and impressively constructed – but often difficult to stick with due to its deliberate darkness.

Content warning: stalking, grooming, eating disorders, disordered eating, cheating, emotional abuse, bullying, assault, sexual harrassment

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Netgalley and Transworld Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.

[Caroline Kerdouci · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly didn’t know what to make of this novel. It is imaginatively written under the headings from a shopping list, written prior to Ruth and her partner Neil going their separate ways. We follow Ruth through this breakup as she navigates her life beyond, working as a nurse in a care home alongside colleagues/friend Alanna and the two ‘Lolitas’. I found these passages relatively easy to read and at times humorous but ultimately Shelf Life is a depressing read. Ruth cuts a strange and sad figure which the author portrays well, for instance the sex scene with the barman. Overall though I found the narrative confusing and at times completely failed to understand what the author is trying to convey. Perhaps the format adds to the disjointed feel of the novel, switching between life in the care home, bizarre dreams and emails between Neil and Ruth when they are beginning their relationship and then Neil and some unknown woman after the break up. I can’t pretend to understand most of this novel, reading it felt like entering a parallel universe where everyone else spoke a different language. I’m not entirely sure why I persevered as no one wants to feel like they are stupid by not understanding the content!! Reading is meant to be an enjoyable experience and whilst I appreciate the hard work that has gone into creating this work, sadly it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Unfortunately I don’t think this novel will appeal to a mainstream audience but thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read ahead of publication.

[Marzia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the pleasure to be a friend of the author so I will just put it out there for what it is and you can decide for yourself if I am a reliable commenter: I first discovered Livia because of her poetry (which is my main interest) and since then followed her from afar until few years ago, when we got close. I am a lucky friend and lucky women's writings scholar because her book really resonated with me both personally and scholarly! It confirmed to me her greatest writing trait: to be extremely experimental whilst also very straight forward in developing a narrative.

I enjoyed in particular the ways in which the timelines interact, making the reader confused about determining the truth of the events. Similarly, each character – and the main one in particular – is enriched by the diverse expectations both them as characters and we as readers have. All these perspectives get shaken up together at every stage.

Although this might appear confusing at first, the very human depiction of each and every character involved and the decisions they make (in living, in narrating, in judging, etc...) makes it approachable for what it is: a story. A story that as every story is the summa of many stories, a story that is confusing because it is never objective but revisited and rewritten through memories, opinions, dreams.

Livia plays along with it in form and structure, and stretches the narrative categories by mixing styles, registers, perspectives. The author gives back to the readers an unreliable recount of the process of self-discovery. Which is the greatest gift ever.

I enjoyed then above all my literary and human right to be confused, to skip lines, to get angry, to roll my eyes, to empathise over same neurosis with some characters, and so on. I second guessed everything and everyone, as so often happens to myself when I feel, remember, dream, discuss, and share a story.

So I guess that to get back to my personal incipit: I am a reliable reader and critic and friend at the best a person can be, confused and fallible and human.


BTW the plot is perfectly summarised by others so I won't repeat it (but of course I loved it because I had my heart broken as probably everyone else so let's heal together I'll make the tiramisu).

[Sahil Javed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shelf Life starts with 30 year old Ruth being dumped by her fiance, Neil, and using her shopping list, she tells her story.

“Well, I’m just trying to say that … I’ve been thinking. You know what I’m like. That we all have this great love there inside of us.”

“I don’t know, Ruth,’ you said into the darkness of our garden. ‘Don’t you ever want to share it with more than one person?”

This book had the potential to be really good. The opening chapter was strong and I enjoyed the writing and the whole structure with using the shopping list to explain her own relationship sounded promising. But the opening chapter was the only strong one. After that, it went downhill. The writing didn’t impress me after that, the plot wasn’t strong at all, and the characters were all really unlikeable and bitchy. The comparison to Sally Rooney is what initially drew me to this book but after finishing it, I don’t think it’s an accurate comparison to make. I can’t tell you what happened in this book, because I have absolutely no clue, in particular the ending, which was so unbelievably confusing it felt as if I was reading a completely different book.

“Here’s what I think: it doesn’t take two perfect halves to make up a whole. There are many ways to cut up an apple.”

The characters in this book were so unlikeable. Ruth had no backbone, her “friends” at work were so bitchy, and her attitude towards them was also really bitchy. And let’s not even talk about Neil. He was so fucking creepy it was unreal. He was a pervert, a stalker, had the weirdest internal monologue about women and was just an all round awful person, not just because he broke up with Ruth but because of the things he did before he got with her and after. So he sleeps with her friend but gives Ruth his number because it’s her he actually wants to get to know? And she ends up starting a relationship with him as if that isn’t weird? And the weird stalkerish emails he sends to a women he works with and then eventually another woman he decides to pursue a relationship with made me actually uncomfortable. What an actual fucking weirdo.

Overall, Shelf Life was disappointing as hell. It was boring, the characters were awful and the plot went absolutely nowhere. What was the point of any of this?

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

With thanks to Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This is a book that sadly left me cold. I could see what the author was trying to do, but much of her technique seemed to be there for its own sake, rather than driving the telling of her story.

Ruth has been in a relationship with Neil for 10 years and they are engaged, when he announces one evening that he is leaving her to move to a commune. In her shell-shock she focuses on the week’s shopping list, the items on which form the subsequent chapter names, for no good reason at all that I could see.

The narrative alternates between Ruth’s first person almost stream of consciousness as she deals with the first waves of shock and grief, and emails and text messages from Neil to a succession of women he attempts to strike up relationships with while still with Ruth, and a section where we get his voice trying to justify his behaviour. Neil is a manipulative man-child with no sense of morals or responsibility, able to justify himself to himself by spouting new-age pop psychology and making himself out to be a soul in search of enlightenment. 

My main problem with engaging with this novel is that Ruth remains largely a cipher throughout. She reports the throes of the early days when she retreats into herself, which is understandable. But there are hints of a long history of dysfunctional passivity more generally. She seems to live on dissolved sugar, and from Neil’s description of her shopping habits in her student days, this is not a reaction to the break-up but a more deep-seated eating disorder which is never addressed in the novel. 

At work she seems responsible and reliable, but unless she is leaving out a great deal in her narrative, she seems to have very little interaction with her co-workers or the residents in the nursing home where she works. She seems to have no real friends, although her former school mate Alanna who now works with her, along with another pair of flighty young carers, hatch up a plan to ask her to be Alanna’s maid of honour in Alanna’s upcoming wedding, in order to draw her out. And there is a disturbing incident where she may be the cause of a resident’s death...

Altogether, I found this novel quite unsatisfying. There is some hope that Ruth will recover from Neil’s departure, but not that she will become less passive, more rounded, more of a presence in the world. It is a novel of omissions, and while this is a valid narrative technique which, handled well, allows the reader to engage and fill in the gaps, there’s just too much here that remains empty, like a jigsaw puzzle with more missing pieces than there are remaining ones. My feeling on reaching the end was, ‘meh, so what?’

[MartinaViola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mi intrigava moltissimo questo libro, scritto in inglese da un'italiana e tradotto da un'altra scrittrice, Veronica Raimo, di cui sento sempre parlare benissimo, ma che non ho mai letto. Avevo visto una diretta in cui l'autrice Livia Franchini, mia coetanea, parlava delle influenze letterarie e delle scelte stilistiche adottate in questa sua opera prima con Claudia Durastanti (di cui ho abbandonato la celeberrima Straniera a causa della scrittura eccessivamente artificiosa e stucchevole per i miei gusti) ed ero molto interessata, visto che l'audacia e la sperimentazione non sono ingredienti che si trovano facilmente nella narrativa contemporanea italiana, se possiamo includerci un'opera scritta in inglese. Insomma mi attirava quest'idea della sperimentazione linguistica e formale: ero rimasta affascinata dalle parole dell'autrice che pare ci abbia lavorato per anni a questa storia, riuscendo addirittura a cogliere i cambiamenti apportati dalla lingua alla percezione del personaggio da parte del lettore... io sempre più bocchinaperta (cit. Laura Pariani).

Dopo tutto 'sto preambolo capirete che avevo maturato un certo hype per questa lettura che parte da una relazione interrotta e si evolve seguendo la lista della spesa della protagonista, tale Ruth, che a detta dell'autrice in italiano dovrebbe risultare più facile da supportare, ho pensato subito "figurati in inglese, la lanciavo dalla finestra!"... Simpatia per la protagonista non pervenuta, per quanto mi riguarda. I capitoli/ingredienti raccontano diversi punti di vista, non solo quello di Ruth, inframmezzati da stralci di conversazioni in chat stile msn, con nickname tipo follettina88 e paxxerella00, che aprono finestre sul passato sfigato della nostra protagonista sfigata. (Trattasi di donna remissiva che per più di un decennio si è rimpicciolita ancora e ancora per fare spazio all'ego dell'uomo che la accompagnava e adesso si ritrova da sola.) Non sono riuscita a provare empatia per lei, sorry but not sorry.

Vabbè non mi è piaciuto, è chiaro. Non mi ha minimamente coinvolto e ho già rimosso il perché e il per come, ho trovato più incisivo il racconto della genesi del romanzo che il romanzo stesso, peccato.

[Elisa Lipari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho finalmente letto Gusci e una cosa che ho notato è che mi concilia il sonno. Non nel senso che mi annoia, tutt'altro, le parti dove Ruth meticolosamente percorre i passi per una rimessa in sesto, è come se qualcosa mi ricordasse di curare il corpo.
Un promemoria. Letto la sera per tre giorni. Mentre leggevo sentivo il richiamo del letto, del riposo, della cura. È una bellissima sensazione che trascende dal libro ma che dal libro si estende.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelf Life is a fascinating novel that follows Ruth who is coming to terms with her fiance breaking up with her. She finds a shopping list that is the only thing left of him in their home and the novel then is told in chapters headed by each item on the list.

I loved this book. I found it was quite a meandering novel and it begged to be read slowly. I’m naturally a fast reader but I really enjoyed the fact that this book made me slow down, it made me want to take it all in and to take time to ponder what I had read.

Ruth is blindsided by her fiance deciding to end their long term relationship. She is mid-way through washing up when Neil announces that it’s over. I really felt for Ruth, I know what it’s like to have to re-evaluate life after a break up as it happened to me at the same age. It’s like a rug has been pulled from under you and suddenly you’re not sure who you are anymore, or how you relate to other people in your life.

Shelf Life is predominantly told from Ruth’s perspective but we get the occasional chapter from Neil. It’s interesting to see how Ruth feels about herself and her life, and how she related herself to Neil. Neil’s chapters are increasingly uncomfortable to read though as you get a slow realisation that he’s not the man Ruth thought he was. He inserts himself into women’s lives and seems to become the man they think they need.

There is also an occasional chapter from Alanna. This is a girl that Ruth was at school with, and later at nursing college. They then end up working together at the same care home. I found Alanna a character that I couldn’t quite work out. I got the feeling that she had been quite antagonistic through school, perhaps being part of the popular gang that Ruth was on the outside of. She seems to care about Ruth now they’re adults but I was on edge reading her perspective as I felt sure she was setting Ruth up for something. As time went on I came to quite like her but I never one hundred per cent felt sure of her. I loved this aspect of the novel though because that’s how it is in life, you can never be sure of another person’s motives even if you have known them a long time and especially if they’ve always just been on the edge of your life.

Shelf Life really captures life, and it does it in all its glory – there is humour and heartbreak all mixed in together. There are some moments in this novel that made me cringe because the descriptions are so real, and we’ve all been there, but that’s the beauty of this novel. It takes a great writer to really capture how life is and Livia Franchini is an incredible writer!

Shelf Life is a novel that I very much enjoyed as I was reading it and I’ve found that my love for it has grown even more since I finished it. I find myself thinking about it, and about Ruth, and relating it to my own life and it just won’t let go of me. It really is a novel that has so much depth and so many layers to it, some that only become apparent when you give yourself the space to ponder on it. I adored this book and I highly recommend it!

This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com

[Lara A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was going to DNF, but trudged miserably on, like someone walking to the shops in the rain to buy toilet roll. An appropriate simile for this book since it is meant to be loosely structured around a shopping list.

Despite all the fawning reviews, this is yet another Eleanor Oliphant type novel about a damaged individual making their way in a world that perplexes them. The issue with such novels is that why would you want to spend several hours in the company of an character who doesn't like themselves or anyone they know?

In addition to this, the character is meant to be a nurse, but doesn't sound or act like one. Basic things are wrong, like people in nursing homes being called patients instead of residents, referring to care assistants as nurses and not living in mortal fear of the NMC.

A book best left on the shelf.

[Susie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

a joy to find this London connection debut novel in the Northcote bookshop! an impressive format that I devoured in a day or so, I could probably have kept reading, and would have liked more depth with some of the peripheral storylines although not about the heinous long term partner. I am left with questions and many thoughts about why we seek relationships - of course understandably, comfort, love, desire and aversion to loneliness, but so many people seem coupled in an unconscious way. as it's put "it's not about choosing each other each day but forgetting there is even a choice". I think we hope that there is an unwavering conscious love in all sustained connections. maybe Ruth will realise she never had that for herself.

[Nicola Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a relationship break up to begin with and then apparently about a women trying to find herself. I found this book enjoyable but really frustrating.

Ruth's boyfriend of ten years asks her for the uptempth time for an open relationship and she says no. So he engineers a fight with her and leaves. So far, so good. Then we go through their last shop together and Ruth tells her story through the items on it. This would make a lot more sense if Ruth's eating disorder was properly discussed in the book. Its hinted at, kind of shown and mixed up in the relationship with her mother, but never addressed or sorted.

Ruth seems to have no friends in high school - we see a weird incident where a boy asks her to kiss him via a note, there are hints that this incident is embarrassing, but we don't see why. We see messages from people that she goes to high school with - but we don't know if they ever interact with her. We see her meet up with one of these girls in later life - both at nursing college when Alanna the friend sleeps with Neil before becomes Ruth's boyf, and then again at the nursing home. We never know if Alanna is her real friend or a bully from her high school days. The hen's night incident seems odd - what kind of friend leaves a very drunk friend to fend for herself with the bar tender?

Neil - is possibly the most fully formed character in the book. We all know Neil. Neil is the man that sent creepy emails to the receptionist in his workplace until she figures out who he is and asks him to stop. Neil is the dude on the dating app who sends you long messages but never reveals who he is or meets you. Neil is the guy who basically stalked Ruth forever, and then when he got her loved her for ten years, cheated on her, both physically and by messaging other woman and then told her he needed time out when he wanted to be with one of them.

The incident in the end - seems very odd - basically Ruth is assaulted by an old guy in the home, she fends him off, but he dies in the tussle. She runs away, leaving the porter to find the aftermath. Then it seems that the police are called, even though the doc signing the death certificate seems unconcerned by the whole thing? Which means that someone called them on her? Then we hear from all of these other people who they think she is - which is weird cause we still don't know who Ruth thinks she is. They allude to her being suicidal. Then in the final scene we see her buying razors. This is where I was at a loss - was she still employed? Given the time slips in the novel is this before or after the incident? So many unanswered questions about characters that are not fully formed.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The break-up plot is such a staple of chick-lit/rom-coms that it's refreshing to see it treated with a level of seriousness here. That said, this book is somewhat different from the blurb: the shopping list, for example, is no more than chapter titles, and the structure is that familiar fragmented one switching from character to character with emails and texts. Sometimes this works well: Neil's emails, for example, tell us something important about him and his relationship with Ruth that never needs to be spelled out. In other places the story becomes artificially stretched as we flip back ten years and spend lots of time on events that ultimately lack significance.

I've seen comparisons with Eleanor Oliphant but should say that this is less intimate and doesn't have the humour or transparent depth of pain of that book. It seems influenced, to me, also by Elena Ferrante's 'Days of Abandonment' though it lacks the focus and rawness of that text.

What I like is that Franchini doesn't spell out everything and pin it down: both Ruth and Neil are troubled personalities though in differing ways. And that excruciating scene where Ruth takes chicken and coleslaw to have dinner with her mother is rendered with precision and control. I think I'd have liked to have seen more of this detail rather than the story spreading itself so thinly. An interesting debut, overall, but it could do with some finessing: 3.5 stars.

[Jemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is really reaching for a profound depth that it never quite achieves. long rambling descriptions of dreams and stream-of-consciousness passages just aren't well-written enough to be engaging, and seem to be a diversion tactic to avoid ever getting to the actual meat of the story. i was initially really hooked by the story and the concept, but neither live up to expectations and this is ultimately a very unsatisfying read.

[Marina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very intrigued by the chapter division and the author who I share the life path with (born in Pisa, living in London). However, unfortunately, I found this book a waste of time. I couldn't empathise with any of the characters, especially the main one - Ruth. They are all big losers with no attempt of improvement ("sfigati" as an italian would say, all of them, no one excluded). The plot is unfinished, the ending very unclear, the syntax ambitious and contrived. Disappointing..

[anautumnaldream · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you start a book while keeping your expectations in check because the synopsis was very promising and a bit unique but then the book disappoints you in various ways, what are you supposed to do?

That’s the question that kept me from writing the review for this one for a few days.

After a decade of being together, Ruth is left alone when her partner Neil leaves her. All she has after that are the memories of Neil, her work as a nurse in an old people’s home and lists of grocery shopping. We are given glimpses into her life throughout the book by means of items in the grocery list and I have to admit that the format really intrigued me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The idea that every single item from their list is cleverly incorporated into the chapters made this book more enjoyable than it really is.

I do wish that the pacing was a bit better and that all the characters we see were a bit more three-dimensional, including Ruth. Neil seemed a bit off putting and a bit creepy at times. I wish we got more of Alanna as she seemed to genuinely care about Ruth. I wish she was more fleshed out, Ruth and Alanna were friends for a long time and if only I was shown that part of their relationship. They had history, didn’t they? It should have been made obvious in the way really good and long friendships can be shown. Oh, well.

Part of the reason my rating went down could be because of the format of the book not always working on my Kindle. I think this book clearly had great potential but somewhere the writing and characters felt a bit flat to me. There are times when I truly felt for Ruth, there was a lot that the author could have unpacked with her. Her childhood, her relationship with her mother, her friendship with Alanna, her eating issues! So many things that feel like they weren’t explored enough.

However the ending did feel a bit better, I like thinking that Ruth did have an optimistic outlook ahead of her. In the end, I think what this book set out to achieve was Ruth finding parts of herself that were on the mend, Ruth understanding that despite her current circumstances, she did have the gumption to forge her life ahead. It it a hopeful ending but I just wish I could have connected more to the people and the plot a bit more.

It is certainly worth a read despite my less than effusing review because the author does show promise and the book does pose a few questions that might remain with you even after you are done with it.

[tbb03 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 / 5.0

With Shelf Life I had hoped for a good example of millennial fiction, but sadly it left me disappointed.

The premise sounded very promising: Ruth and her boyfriend split up after being in a relationship for 10 years. All that’s left afterwards is the last weekly grocery list that they wrote together. Item by item she goes through it, meanwhile dealing with her emotions, her grief and finding herself as a newly single person.

I loved the concept of structuring the aftermath of the breakup with all these small and seemingly meaningless items that Ruth and her ex-boyfriend found important enough to put onto their shopping list. The first chapters are heart-breaking and beautifully written, as Ruth sleepwalks through life and is constantly reminded of how their life together used to be. But then the book spins off into throwbacks to their life before they knew each other, pages of messenger chats between friends of Ruth, and e-mails her ex-boyfriend sent to other women when they were still together. These showed me what an absolute idiot he was, but other than that I felt like the book just meandered through past events. And all of a sudden, in the present, Ruth was doing better. I didn’t appreciate this disjointed form of narration.

[Emma Hilton-Balfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

not really what the blurb made me envision???? it was an interesting story and writing style with a cleverly built plot that shifts focus throughout. somehow i was left feeling slightly underwhelmed

[Khy Lovegood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually enjoyable- I liked the different styles of writing. The ending threw me a bit, but over all, a nice read.

[Rosalind Bryden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a tricky one to review. I certainly enjoyed a lot of the book, but was left feeling a bit adrift at the end, maybe just wanting a little more in the last section. It would be a good book for book groups as I certainly wanted to talk to someone once I'd got to the end to ask their opinion of the outcome.

The story is based around Ruth, who is taking her first steps following the breakup of a ten-year relationship with Neil. The chapters are structured around the couple's last shopping list and I loved the way each item is cleverly written into that particular chapter. After many chapters I found myself looking back to read the chapter name to see where the item had appeared.

The narrative jumps a lot and gradually Ruth's story is pieced together. Some of the narrative is told from Neil's perspective and scarily we see that he has groomed Ruth, used her and discarded her. The little we hear of him certainly defines him as a very creepy character. We also meet Alanna, one of Ruth's work colleagues. The girls also share past history having been at the same school and nursing college. I am sorry we did not see more of Alanna. Although she is portrayed as being rather ditsy I think there would or could have been a lot more to her character. She is clearly concerned about Ruth's wellbeing and she appears to have invited her to be maid of honour at her wedding out of concern.

I found some sections of the book harder to read. I found myself skimming some of the pages where the girls text each other as on my Kindle I ended up with loads of empty lines and it wasn't so easy to work out who was saying what. Also, I am not sure that all the bizarre dreams added a lot.

I think I ended up feeling sorry for Ruth. Her eating issues clearly go back to a time when she was much younger and there is a heart-breaking scene where she goes to visit her mother but they cannot connect. I am not surprised she 'snapped' and felt a certain amount of sympathy for her. With a hint of a spoiler - if she got her life back on track, as she seems to have done, well good for her.

The book is cleverly written and you have to keep alert to put the pieces together. But I'd say it's worth a read.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 3 out of 5]

After ten years together, Ruth finds herself suddenly alone. Neil has left and all that her life consists of now is her work as a nurse in an old people’s home and shopping groceries at the small Tesco close to her flat. How did she get here? First, the escape of her ill-willed mother, then her friend Alanna whom she met in nursery school and with whom she still works together, the different patients and their respective needs, and Neil whom she despite all the time together seems to have hardly known.

Shelf Life – a. the period during which a good remains effective and free from deterioration. B. the period for which an idea or piece of information is considered an advantage over the competitor.

Still after having finished reading the novel, I wonder about the link between the title and the plot. Yes, the groceries Ruth buys somehow play a prominent role since they provide the titles for the different chapters. But beyond this? So what else could the title refer to? The time the main character is considered young – might be, but Ruth is beyond this discussion and her age is of no importance. Even as a young girl she wasn’t actually judged pretty or attractive. An innovative idea or piece of information is also something I didn’t find.

Thus, just as the titles leaves me a bit perplex, the whole story only slightly touched me. There is some red thread, basically between Alanna and Ruth, which is a bit strange since her relationship and breakup with Neil somehow nevertheless make up the centre of the plot around which everything revolves.

I liked Livia Fanchini’s style of writing and I am sure she can tell an interesting story, but somehow “Shelf Life” confused me much more than it made sense. Her characters are definitely interesting in their very peculiar manners, but somehow it all seemed not fully developed to me.

[Eryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book which I spontaneously picked up at the bookstore. Whereby I refrained from consulting the reviews on Goodreads before buying. I'm glad because I have a quirk and often don't take books under 3.8 home with me - yes, I'm aware how stupid this is.

I felt this book was like a storm. The calm, the disaster, the clean up, the sadness and yes, hope? As you can read on a review on the cover, there is something Sally Rooney-esque about it - but only a hint of it. I think that fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will also like this book.

Livia Franchini has a very intense writing style, the main character was portrayed very authentically. A very recommendable story, which is very cleverly constructed around a grocery list.

[Mina Widding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det här var en märklig bok, och jag brukar tycka om märkligt, men det var mycket som inte klickade eller gick ihop, den är väldigt spretig. Många olika perspektiv, Ruth, Neil, Alanna (i dagboksform), tonårsvänners mobbing i chatform, sms, mejl (Neils stalkiga come-ons på andra under förhållandet med Ruth), en möhippa, människor från seniorboendet... Pretty much a mess. Låt oss säga att det märkliga var det som var bra, men formen gick inte ihop (och "autentisk" chat - please no) så det blev en kompromiss mellan 4 och 2.

[Nevena · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started promising. No resolution about what was with her and her mom's weird eating habits, nor with her relationship with others. I quite like the structure of chapter/item off her list. But what was she doing with all the eggs and sugar she was buying when at school? Where was she going when all alone in Rome? No-one ever finds out so it left me with a bitter sense of having spent time to read a story about characters which wasn't there and were not worth it.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novels about disaffected young(ish) women are usually my thing but this didn’t really do a lot for me. Use of a shopping list as chapter titles with nothing really tying them to the narrative felt like an affectation and I found Ruth to be quite bland. It’s not a bad book (although the dream sequences almost tip it that way) but falls way short of its contemporaries.

[erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

to be honest i don’t really feel like finishing this book it just isn’t that interesting to me lol. i sort of like the mixed formats like reading the texts and journal entries but none of the characters are likeable and i don’t care what happens to them

maybe i will try and finish this one day but dnf

[Agnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the different ways the author told the story, as there were chapters from the point of view of different characters, and chapters that were text or email exchanges. I felt that the emotions of the characters were well portrayed and believable.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was much more gritty and messy than i expected. the characterisation was fascinating and the intrigue of ruth and neil carried me the whole way through. however i haven't moved past intrigue as the ending just didn't wrap it up for me!

[maja ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

good idea mid execution

[Felicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boken kändes väldigt rörig och jag fick ingen Röd tråd i det hela. Jag fick inget grepp om den alls vilket var tråkigt.

[Francesca Corno]

Di cosa c'è dietro i Gusci e perché, forse, leggerò Shelf Life, cioè l'originale in inglese: tutto su Tropismi.