Deliverywoman
Eva Wyles

'The loneliness and longing of the characters in Deliverywoman really stayed with me, I found these stories haunting and beautifully constructed.'
– Daisy Johnson, author of The Hotel

‘Eva Wyles has a knack for skewering life in all its messy glory and she does so with an unwavering eye. Visceral and deeply sexy, these stories wriggle under your skin and tug at you long after reading.’
– Orlaine McDonald, author of No Small Thing

‘Unexpectedly profound, these stories are incisive and achingly human, digging at the root of what it means to be a person, to reach for connection and feel the sharp edges of your own self. A collection that is sure to stay with you long after you put it down.’
– Vanessa Santos, author of Make a Home of Me

Deliverywoman is the stunning debut collection from Eva Wyles – thirteen short stories that dive into the complexities of human connection, the pursuit of meaning, and modern-day loneliness.

Across a diverse cast of characters – from teachers and gas station workers to hedonistic revellers and wealthy gamers – Wyles explores the strange dimensions of our world and the dangers of ordinary life, with needle-sharp writing both real and surreal.

Deliverywoman sits alongside A.M.Homes’ The Safety of Objects and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World, announcing the arrival of a powerful new voice in contemporary fiction.

Praise for Deliverywoman

‘I love a short story collection in which the author holds distinct moments up to examine them from different angles, letting the light hit them just so. This is what Eva Wyles does in Deliverywoman – life is shown to us by sometimes strange characters in often compelling settings. We are thrown into odd spaces where the rules are different from the everyday, though everything feels familiar, and we realise that, yes, life is absurd and it’s hard to figure out what to do next. Yet we have these companions, and the promise of a few good stories, brought together by a gifted writer, to keep us company.’
– Tina Makereti, author of The Mires

‘These compelling, acutely observed stories examine the points at which lives intersect. Characters connect and exit: passing each other, colliding, departing. They navigate their way through the heat of beginnings and endings, and try to make sense of everything in between.’
— Anna Taylor, author of Relief

‘There is a beautiful anthropology to Wyles’ writing; these are stories that know what makes us tick before we do.’
— Leah Dodd, author of Past Lives

‘Deliverywoman builds a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Stories of debaucherous ski fields and summer house parties lead into stories of a desolate, post-pandemic future: where the streets are mostly empty and connection is fraught. These characters are lonely and often lost, but each story leaves you feeling that hope is just around the corner.’
— Joy Holly, author of Dream Girls

About the Author

Eva is a graduate of Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and the MA programme in fiction at the International Institute of Modern Letters, where she worked on a short-story
collection that received the Jean Squire Project Scholarship. She was also taught by Fariha Róisín in a Catapult writing programme in New York. Her writing has been featured in The Dominion Post, Food Court Books, Mayhem Literary Journal, Turbine | Kapohau, The National Library of New Zealand, Journal des Rêves, Silo Theatre, and others.

She is originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently based in London.

Paperback ISBN: 9781914391507

Ebook ISBN: 9781914391514

Publication date: April 2025

Formats: Paperback / eBook