Shifts captures the devitalization of a community in the south Wales valleys resulting from industrial decline. Through the linked, but simultaneously isolated narratives of the four main characters, Jack, Keith, Rob and Judith, the novel captures the ‘shifting’ values of a society in transition. The individual perspectives portray the loneliness and meaninglessness of what it is to be de-skilled, de-masculinised, and dispirited when what defines a community is suddenly absent. Notions of identity are explored through the themes of gender, nationhood and industry, in this powerful, humerous, and sharply observant text.