- Publisher: Combray House Books
- Publication date: March 29, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 217 pages
- ISBN-10: 1958659258
- Genre: Short Stories Anthologies
The BookViral Review:
Laura Chester’s Shovels & Chandeliers: A Collage of Selected Work is far more than a collection of selected writings. It is a literary self-portrait assembled across more than five decades, bringing together poetry, prose poetry, memoir, fiction, personal essays, and excerpts from previously published works into a volume that reveals both the breadth of Chester’s career and the remarkable consistency of her artistic vision. Drawing material from books published between the early 1970s and 2024, the collection serves as both an introduction to her work and a retrospective celebration of a distinctive literary voice.
The opening excerpt from Watermark functions almost as a declaration of intent. Chester rejects conventional linear storytelling in favour of something more fluid and intuitive, inviting readers to enter memory, emotion, and experience without demanding that every path lead neatly from one destination to another. That approach becomes the organising principle of the collection itself.
Throughout the volume, recurring themes emerge and re-emerge: family, landscape, horses, love, desire, memory, illness, aging, and the search for meaning within ordinary life. Yet despite these repeated motifs, the collection never feels repetitive. Instead, the pieces build upon one another, creating a layered portrait of a writer continually examining similar questions from different stages of life.
Some of the most memorable early selections are rooted in place. The excerpts from The Story of the Lake transform childhood memories into richly textured explorations of family inheritance, beauty, and loss. Whether describing a grandmother’s study, treasured gemstones, changing seasons, or life beside the water, Chester demonstrates an extraordinary ability to invest physical settings with emotional resonance. The lake itself becomes more than a location; it becomes a repository of memory and identity.
Pieces such as Eyes of the Garden and Retired Farmer’s Prayer further showcase her gift for finding profound emotional meaning in the natural world. Gardens, fields, animals, and changing weather are never simply background details. They become expressions of belonging, continuity, mortality, and renewal. Chester writes about rural life with both affection and precision, capturing its physical realities while also exploring its spiritual dimensions.
The collection also excels when examining family relationships. Works such as The One Thing You Can’t Have balance humour, frustration, tenderness, and regret, portraying family life with an honesty that resists sentimentality. Parents, siblings, grandparents, children, and extended relatives emerge as fully realised individuals whose flaws are as important as their virtues. Chester understands that families are built as much from conflict and misunderstanding as they are from love.
Similarly, First Base Boyfriend demonstrates Chester’s ability to transform personal experience into something universal. What begins as a recollection of youthful romance evolves into a meditation on memory, longing, and the enduring influence of first love. The piece captures the intensity of adolescence while reflecting upon it with the insight of maturity, making it one of the collection’s most engaging narrative works.
Importantly, the latter half of the collection confirms that Chester’s strengths extend well beyond nostalgia and memoir. Poems such as Bees Inside Me and Deserted reveal a writer deeply attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, capable of moving effortlessly between the physical and the metaphysical. Here, bees, cattle, orchards, fields, and blossoming trees become vehicles for exploring loneliness, desire, belonging, and human vulnerability. These later works possess a distilled lyrical power that demonstrates the evolution of Chester’s craft across decades of writing.
Elsewhere, selections connected to horses, rural landscapes, and personal transformation reinforce themes that have clearly occupied Chester throughout her career. The closing pages, together with the biographical notes and critical commentary, reveal a writer whose work has consistently bridged poetry, fiction, memoir, and spiritual reflection while remaining rooted in lived experience.
What ultimately distinguishes Shovels & Chandeliers is the coherence of its voice. Although the material originates from numerous books, genres, and periods of the author’s life, the collection feels unified by Chester’s unmistakable perspective—lyrical, observant, emotionally fearless, and richly sensory. Readers seeking tightly plotted narratives may find its collage-like structure unconventional, but those who appreciate literary memoir, reflective prose, and poetic storytelling will discover a deeply rewarding reading experience.
Shovels & Chandeliers succeeds not merely as a collection of selected writings but as a testament to a lifetime devoted to literature. It allows readers to witness the evolution of an accomplished writer while recognising the enduring concerns that have animated her work from the beginning.
Elegant, intimate, and beautifully crafted, Shovels & Chandeliers offers a rare opportunity to experience the breadth of Laura Chester’s literary career in a single volume. Rich in imagery, emotional insight, and hard-won wisdom, it stands as both a compelling introduction to her work and a worthy celebration of a distinctive literary voice.
It is highly recommended.
