



Books Paper Scissors is a small independent bookshop in leafy South Belfast, near Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University and the Ulster Museum.
We stock a curated selection of newest fiction and non-fiction, plus Irish writing and poetry. We also have a children's room. Beyond books we stock artistic greetings cards, Leuchtturm stationery, pens from Lamy and other gifts.
Please note, our website inventory is not tracked with our shop stock, but any ordered books can be shipped directly.
We offer extremely competitive international shipping. Rates will be calculated on receipt of order and only correct postage will be take, with any remainder refunded.
Latest
Albion, Anna Hope ( hardback June 2025)
£16.99
The Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home – twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone – to bury Philip: husband, father and the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember. Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defence against the coming climate catastrophe. Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn.
Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other. Isa has long suspected that her father thought only of himself, and hopes to seek out her childhood love, who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage. And then there is Clara, who arrives in their midst from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.
Superb … Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama' Jonathan Coe
The Racket : On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99% by Conor Niland ( paperback june 2025)
£10.99
Conor Niland may only have managed a career-high ranking of 129 – only? that is some achievement in itself! – but The Racket, his account of how he managed this, is up there with the best half-dozen books on tennis ever written.' Geoff Dyer
WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
When Conor Niland was 16, he was chosen to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy.
Conor Niland knows what it's like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room ('Ciao, bonjour, hello!'), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world's biggest tennis stadium - while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top. The Racket is the story of pro tennis's 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments.
It brings us into a world where a few dozen super-rich players - travelling with coaches and physios - share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses. Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog's memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.
Bogboy by Patrick Kealey ( paperback June 2025)
£10.99
Alfie O'Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won't let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.
While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny. The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man. An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love - wherever we may find it - is always stronger than hatred.
limited numbers of signed copies available August 2025
The Benefactors- Wendy Erskine ( hardback June 2025)
£18.99
From the prize-winning author of Dance Move and Sweet Home, this is an astounding novel about intimate histories, class and money - and what being a parent means. Meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to 18-year-old boys.
Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children's services charity, loves celebrity and prestige.
When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend, Misty Johnston, they'll come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. But on her side, Misty has the formidable matriarch, Nan D, and her father, taxi-driver Boogie: an alliance not so easily dismissed.
'Erskine's great gift is for character. Not a single figure in this novel feels contrived'Guardian
'A writer of an unrivalled range of imaginative empathy'Financial Times'
Story of a Heart, Rachel Clarke ( paperback June 2025)
£10.99
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024
BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SPECTATOR, NEW STATESMAN, NEW SCIENTIST, AND PROSPECTThis is the unforgettable story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift.
With tremendous compassion and clarity, Dr Rachel Clarke relates the urgent journey of a young girl's heart and explores a history of remarkable medical innovations , stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless physicians, immunologists, nurses and scientists.
'The best narrative non-fiction I've read in years. Rachel Clarke has written a profound piece of investigative journalism and wrapped it up in poetry' Christie Watson
My Friends, Fredrik Backman ( hardback June 2025)
£20.00
You have to take life for granted, the artist thinks, the whole thing: sunrises and slow Sunday mornings andwater balloons and another person’s breath against your neck. That’s the only courageous thing a person can do. In the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world three tiny figures sit at the end of a pier.
Most people don’t even notice them. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers seek refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days together. They tell jokes, they share secrets, and they commit small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into 18-year-old Louisa’s care. Determined to learn how it came to be and to decide what to do with it, Louisa embarks on a cross-country journey. But the closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes.
In this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art, Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect.
A stunning, sweeping, extraordinary story of connection, love, and the unbreakable bonds that guide and shape us. Full of humour and heart, My Friends is simply wonderful’ Chris Whitaker
The Wood Where Magic Grows, Andy Shepherd ( paperback july 2025)
£7.99
The first book in an enchanting new series from the author of the bestselling THE BOY WHO GREW DRAGONS, full of unexpected adventure, wonder and wildness, and just a little touch of magic!
Have you ever looked at a tree and seen a face staring back? Maybe you spotted a knobbly brow or a knotty pair of eyes, or even a mossy beard? Well, next time you do, stop staring and say hello! When Iggy discovers overgrown Wildtop Wood at the end of his new garden, he couldn't be more excited. A whole new world opens up for him and his brother Cal, high in the treetops, a world of tangled greenery and unexpected adventure. But some say the wood is a place of danger and mystery.
And as Iggy and Cal venture further into the trees, they hear whispers of a fading green magic, and scampering animals seem to be leading them to a secret deep at the heart of the wood. Could it be that the wood needs them just as much as they need it?Are you ready to join the Treetoppers?Then come on in - the Green is waiting!
'A warm, witty and wondrous adventure' - Maz Evans, author of WHO LET THE GODS OUT?'Brimming with humour and heart, this is the kind of storytelling that young readers will adore' - Abi Elphinstone, author of EMBER SPARK
Among Friends, Hal Ebbott ( hardback July 2025)
£18.99
Four friends. A betrayal that should shatter their seemingly perfect lives.
But will they let it?Amos and Emerson have been friends for more than thirty years. Despite vastly different backgrounds, the two now form an enviable portrait of middle age: their wives are close, their teenage daughters have grown up together, their days are passed in the comfortable languor of New York City wealth. They share an unbreakable bond, or so they think.
This weekend, however, something is different. After gathering for Emerson’s birthday at his country home, celebration gives way to old rivalries and resentments which erupt in a shocking act of violence, one that threatens to shatter their finely made world. In its wake, each must choose: between whom and what they love most.
Hal Ebbott's Among Friends explores themes of class, marriage, friendship, and power, as well as the things we tell ourselves to preserve our finely made worlds. 'A powerful, elegant novel that offers unsparing insight into the lives of others' - Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
Bitter Sweet, Hattie Williams ( Hardback July 2025)
£16.99
In my life, there are things that have happened to me, and things that I have done, that have proven to be moments that have a clear before and an after. One of those moments, perhaps in some ways the biggest, was the day that I met Richard Aveling for the first time.'Charlie is twenty-three, single and the new publicity assistant at the independent London publishing house Winden & Shane.
Richard Aveling is fifty-six, married and the author that has defined his generation. Charlie has long idolised the charming, illustrious writer, who also represents a link to her late mother, who loved his work. But as they embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair, Charlie is forced to hide the relationship from everyone she cares about.
And when the success of Richard's latest book launches him to a new level of fame where all anonymity is lost, she realises she might just be in too deep... A thought-provoking exploration of a relationship founded in power, control and silence, Bitter Sweet is perfect for book clubs and will appeal to fans of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors. **
**'Brutal but tender, entertaining, compelling and completely believable' LAUREN BRAVO'
Notes on Infinity, Austin Taylor ( hardback July 2025)
£16.99
The moment Zoe notices Jack in their Harvard chemistry class, with his scruffy clothes and casual self-assurance, she knows he’s the one to beat. When Zoe starts trying to outsmart Jack in chemistry, he knows she’s the person he’s been looking for. Because Jack has dreams that go far beyond the classroom.
And while he and Zoe might be from different worlds, they share the same thirst for knowledge and fierce ambition. When he invites her to partner with him on some research, she puts aside her pride, and joins him. Apart they are brilliant, but together they are unstoppable, and within two years, they are at the helm of a thriving start-up company, and deep in a relationship that seems a perfect match in every sense.
Until a shocking accusation is levelled against Jack which threatens everything they’ve built – their company, their reputation, and most importantly, their love. Are some dreams too big to come true? And how far would you go to achieve them anyway?A captivating, deeply poignant novel about ambition, deceit, the recklessness that comes with early success and the way that love can make us feel invincible
Love Forms ,Claire Adam ( hardback June 2025)
£16.99
In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago. Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and journeys across the sea to Venezuela.
There, she gives birth to a baby girl, and leaves her with nuns to be given up for adoption. Dawn tries to carry on with her life - a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, a divorce - but through it all, she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela, and of what might have been. Then, forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch.
She says that she might be Dawn's long-lost daughter, stirring up a complicated mix of feelings: could this be the person to give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer?
'Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.'JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR.
THIRST TRAP, Grainne O' Hare ( hardback June 2025)
£16.99
Sometimes friends hold you together. Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart. Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the brink: of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up.
Their crumbling Belfast houseshare has been witness to their roaring twenties, filled with questionable one-night stands and ruthless hangovers. But now fault-lines are beginning to show. The three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched.
Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident. And now they are all beginning to unravel. Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare is a blazing, bittersweet, bitingly funny, and painfully relatable story about the friendships that endure through the very best and the very worst of times.
'Compulsively readable and brilliant on friendship and grief. I raced through it' - Daily Mail'Like the literary love child of Miranda July and Carrie Fisher, transposed in Belfast - hilarious, smart and chaotic in the best way' - Louise Nealon, author of SnowflakeReaders are raving about Thirst Trap:'Made me laugh and cry in equal measure''Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving . .
The Day The Crayons made Friends, ( Dewalt and Jeffers (Hardback June 2025)
£14.99
New York Times bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit are back for another adventure – and this time they explore Duncan's playroom. Will they want to leave the crayon box for good after they make new friends? Duncan’s crayons just can’t seem to stay put! After convincing one group of crayons to go back to work after they wanted to quit and rescuing another group who got lost in the most inconvenient places, Duncan’s crayons have disappeared once more. But this time they’ve gone into his room to make friends.
From Red Crayon, who fulfils his dream of driving a fire engine, to Blue Crayon, who meets a fashion doll desperately in need of a head, to fan favourite Esteban, who is off to tame a teddy bear (or as he would call it, a wild beast), each crayon has an exciting story to share about the new objects they’ve met and the new adventures they’ve had. The #1 New York Times bestselling team behind the international Crayons sensation have come together to create another clever and hilarious tale that will keep children – and grown-ups – laughing.
Seascraper, Benjamin Wood - hardback July 2025
£14.99
A mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature.
Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream. When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future.
But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.
The Compound, Aisling Rawle ( hardback July 2025)
£16.99
You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women. All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.
You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans. Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey. What will you have to do to win? And what happens to the losers? The Compound is an addictive literary satire on modern excess: it holds a twisted mirror up to our obsession with winning, losing and, above all, watching.
Fans of Black Mirror and The Hunger Games will find The Compound both thought-provoking and disturbingly relevant.
Long Distance, Aysegul Savas ( paperback July 2025)
£14.99
Acclaimed author of The Anthropologists Aysegül Savas’s acute and tender first collection explores the distances we keep, and those we try to close, in the age of connectivity. A researcher abroad in Rome eagerly awaits a visit from her long distance lover, only to find he is not the same man she remembers. An expat meets a childhood friend on a layover and is dismayed by her unexpected contentment.
A newly pregnant woman considers the taboo of sharing the news too soon, but can't resist when an opportunity comes to patch up a damaged friendship. Long Distance showcases Savas's devastating talent for the short story. Her shrewd encapsulations of contemporary life often centre on characters displaced more by choice than circumstance, characters both determined to install themselves in new lives and preoccupied with the people they've left behind.
‘Don’t be deceived by Savas’s cool, matter-of-fact tone – beneath it lie layers of wisdom, delicacy and subtlety’ Guardian ‘An exceptionally elegant, intelligent, and original writer’ Sigrid Nunez
Want, collected by Gillian Anderson ( paperback July 2025)
£10.99
Want : Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous
What do you want when no one is watching?What do you want, when the lights are off?What do you want, when you are anonymous?When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain.
And yet so many of us don’t talk about it at all. In this groundbreaking book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous sexual fantasies of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous submission). They are all extraordinary: full of desire, fear, intimacy, shame, satisfaction and, ultimately, liberation.
From dreaming about someone off-limits to conjuring a scene with multiple partners, from sex that is gentle and tender to passionate and playful, from women who have never had sex to women who have had more sex than they can remember, these fantasies provide a window into the most secret part of our minds. Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally themselves.
The God of The Woods, Liz Moore ( July 25, paperback)
£9.99
When their thirteen-year-old daughter Barbara goes missing at summer camp, all eyes fall on the Van Laar family. They're cold, rich people.
They own the camp. And it's happened to them before. Fourteen years ago their little boy, Bear, vanished without a trace.
Two children lost to the same wilderness. Is it a tragedy… or a crime? ‘Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced … I can't remember the last time I felt so entangled in a novelist's coils’ Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'A beguiling novel with a relentless grip. You won't be able to put it down' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'At once an immersive family saga and utterly propulsive mystery.
Can also highly recommend her earlier book, Long Bright River.
Two Kinds of Stranger, Steve Cavanagh ( hardback 31 July 2025)
£16.99
Ellie Parker had everything. Perfect husband.
Perfect apartment. Perfect friends and the perfect job. As an internet celebrity - famed for her random acts of kindness - everyone knew it.
So when a betrayal causes her to lose it all, millions of people are watching. But even at her lowest, Ellie will always help someone in need. Which makes her the perfect target for a sadistic game.
Because as she soon learns, you can never trust a stranger - and a seemingly random encounter plunges her into a nightmare worse than she ever imagined. The only person she can turn to is conman turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn, who must take on a case where nothing is what it seems. With the most cruelly ingenious mind manipulating events from the shadows, everyone is in danger - including Eddie and his family.
The award-winning, Sunday Times Top Five bestseller returns with a brand new thriller featuring the unforgettable Eddie Flynn. 'This crime thriller is fast and relentless and the plot throws some real shockers.
Book Club
The BPS Book Club meets in the last full week of every month. We have two sessions, each one covering the same book so just pick the session that suits you. It's a relaxed and unintimidating sharing of views and opinions.
Tuesday morning 9.30-10.30, or
Thursday evening 7 - 8 pm.
Please contact us if would like to be added to our book-club mailing list.
Please note it fills up quickly ( I take a maximum of 15 per session) so you can only book in response to the email invite each month, on a first come first served basis.

BOOKS as GIFTS
Perhaps you have a relative or friend who loves reading but you have no idea what to choose?
We offer a monthly subscription gift service where the book(s) are chosen and dispatched by Books Paper Scissors with a gift message from the giver.
The recipient will receive an introductory questionnaire and voucher, with SAE to return, allowing them to select genres and identify preferences - we do the rest!
For children or adults, 2024 prices:
Hardback Subscription £25 per month.
Paperback Subscription £15 per month.
Children's Books £12 per month.
No minimum or maximum length of time. Includes all postage.
Please enquire if you would like more details, or order online by searching ' gift subscription'.
Our Book Store
15 Stranmillis Rd, Belfast BT9 5AF
Phone: 028 9066 7815
Monday - Saturday- 10.00 - 17:00