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What a Shame

The must read literary debut for fans of Emma Gannon, Holly Bourne and Caroline O'Dononghue

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What a Shame

By: Abigail Bergstrom
Narrated by: Heather Long
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About this listen

 Adults meets little scratch in this bold, funny and tender debut, which captures the pain of heartbreak and the universal heat of female shame through a very unique journey towards self-acceptance.

'Absorbing and clever, I fell in love with Mathilda'
Cathy Rentzenbrink

The idea of a curse was divisive, but the assertion that I had, for some time now, been 'laden with something dark' was disconcertingly unanimous.

I wondered if this was something you also saw in me, if that was why you left.

There is something wrong with Mathilda.

She's still reeling from the blow of a gut-punch break up and grieving the death of a loved one.

But that's not it.

She's cried all her tears, mastered her crow pose and thrown out every last reminder of him.

But that's not helping.

Concerned that she isn't moving on, Mathilda's friends push her towards a series of increasingly unorthodox remedies.

Until the seams of herself begin to come undone.

Tender, unflinching and blisteringly funny, What a Shame glitters with rage and heartbreak, an offers up the joy of self-acceptance through an extraordinary rite of passage to overcome the prickly heat of female shame.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd©2021 Abigail Bergstrom Coming of Age Dark Humour Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Funny Comedy

Critic reviews

An intelligent, moving and darkly comic debut, taking us deftly from serious explorations of trauma and consent to riotously funny scenes of modern life - it's like Fleabag with a sprinkling of the occult.
Tipped to be THE hit book of 2022
Affecting, clever and blisteringly humorous... a riveting read about heartbreak, female shame and self-acceptance (Sarra Manning)
Hits the nail on the head . . . above all it's a really beautiful portrayal of female friendship. (Laura Hackett)
Dazzling . . . By turns funny, sharp, raw and overwhelming, this is one of those novels where you think you are exploring someone else's pain, only to realise you are actually exploring your own (Read of the Week)
Alternately haunting and hilarious . . . an original and zeitgeisty story about grief, friendship, secrets, shame and self-acceptance.
It's LOL, ever-so-relatable and will also have you weeping into a snotty tissue. Love, love, love
A modern story of grief and loss
Bergstrom's prose, and especially the core dynamic of Mathilda and her friends (a coven of voice notes and anxious love) has a sweet verisimilitude that is delightfully frank, (re)inscribing warmth and intimacy for warmth and intimacy's sakes. And if it all seems a bit familiar - the millennial hodgepodge of tarot, bad dates, housemates and female trauma - well, maybe this is also the point. Maybe these stories are more common than we want to believe.
Absorbing and clever . . . I fell in love with Mathilda (Cathy Rentzenbrink)
Raw and unexpected and weird and utterly brilliant (Otegha Uwagba)
As soon as I finished the final page of What a Shame a deep ache set in. Written by one of the cleverest and boldest writers I've ever read, it is a powerful, beautiful, fascinating novel that will be read for years by any and all young women looking for a friend. I already miss Mathilda. (Scarlett Curtis)
Comparisons to Sally Rooney are inevitable, but this heartfelt, sharp-yet-tender novel earns its own place in the spotlight (Erin Kelly)
What A Shame weaves eternal themes of grief and heartbreak against a modern canvas that is clear and recognisable. There's a piercing sense of what happens when your tragedy becomes your anecdote, and your anecdote becomes tiring to the people around you. Full of heart, wit and feeling, Bergstrom is a new voice but sure to be an enduring one. (Caroline O'Donoghue)
A brilliant debut (Cariad Lloyd)
Raw, poignant, haunting (and hilarious!)... In Mathilda, Bergstrom has created a clear-eyed heroine for a new generation. (Sam Baker)
Truly captivating, blisteringly funny, so clever and perceptive and beautifully written. It made me want to voicenote all my friends immediately. I loved it! (Lauren Bravo)
All stars
Most relevant
The narrator is fantastic. You could almost be watching a movie with all of the different voices, dialect and sound effects. A welcome change from some of the books on audible that sound like they are being read by a sat nav!

Best audio book ever!

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I loved the narration of this, it kept me captivated and able to follow the story with her slight changes in tone or voice that were just right to help set scenes or differentiate between characters. I have recommended this audio book to others, an easy listen, comic at times and a simple story in a way, but with depth and subject matters that hit hard as you feel like you really know the main character throughout and are sat right there with her on the journey.

such brilliant narration!

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This book is beautifully written and performed. I loved the premise and wish I could finish it. I genuinely mean this as constructive feedback if the author or her team see this - there was no trigger warning for r***/SA on audible (I can’t speak for anywhere else as I haven’t looked) but as an audible user there are none. As a survivor I have to be in the right mindset to tackle such subjects and with no prior warning I was very triggered when the main character was r***d. It was very unexpected and I have returned the title without finishing as I don’t know what to expect going forward. Again this is not meant to be negative or a complaint, just a plea to please add trigger warnings in the description for others, so they can have a choice. I am sure many others will love this and I hope it does well as a debut, very promising!

Amazing, but needed trigger warnings

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Such a little gem of a book about the ebbs and flows of friendships and life pain and I got such a lot to think about in relation to my friendships and my own pain and even got some courage. Really witty too ….!
Those who say it didn’t get going simply missed the point

Beautifully written and narrated

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It’s a lovely little story with heartbreak and some parts that are relatable. But almost too much of a nothing thing. Not particularly memorable and I couldn’t honestly tell you most of what happened because it was so easy to stop listening to it.

Kudos to the performer though. She has a lovely voice.

Doesn’t ever really get going

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