Forthcoming March 2026 with Linda Leith Publishing (LLP)
Early Praise
“They are beautiful and shimmering stories, with so much subtlety and nuance—the tension and unease are palpable yet mostly under the surface. I picture them as Chagall paintings—beautiful constellations of images and ideas. There’s a great deal of wisdom here about the lives of women and a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality.” Alix Ohlin, two-time Giller Prize-shortlisted author of Dual Citizens
“I was a convert to Natalie Southworth’s fiction from the first story I read. This book is ambitious, deeply intelligent, and psychologically fearless. Natalie Southworth has a surgical eye for a specific species of suffering: the kind that comes as the cost of what we’d thought we wanted.” Paige Cooper, author of Zolitude
“Natalie Southworth’s stories – crisp, sometimes funny, lovely in their detail – always drive to their emotional heart. These are adventures among baffled parents, a tumult of teens, and the aged clinging to shreds of meaning. All of them brilliantly performed, all memorable.” John Metcalf, writer and distinguished editor
“Her gaze is unwavering. Natalie Southworth conveys the world with pellucid grace.” Claire Holden Rothman, author of Lear’s Shadow
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In the title story of Natalie Southworth’s debut collection, sisters sneak out of their unstable mother’s apartment to find “reality,” an experience with lasting repercussions. Southworth concentrates on moments like this—moments of disconnection, family fragility and unexpected expressions of love.
The stories in There’s Always More to Say focus on characters struggling to achieve what they think they should want despite the demands and loneliness of modern life. A puppeteer attempts to reinvent himself as a realtor. Preteen girls strive to become like their absentee fathers. A nanny must decide between her future or that of the family dog. A high-achieving working mother is imprisoned by her antidepressants.
Infused with humour and verve, yet full of warmth, Southworth interrogates the quest for more and what it means when ambition clashes with private reality.
AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER:
Natalie Southworth 