About The Steps
Juliano Zaffino’s debut novel, The Steps, was published by Tramp Press in the UK and Ireland on 30 April 2026.
‘Sophie and her five children, still reeling from tragedy, relocate from Canada to her partner Derek's childhood home in England. There they attempt to forge a new life together – but their new family is shadowed by grief, myth, and a lingering sense of the uncanny. Through shifting perspectives, from Jules, the delicate middle child, to fierce Ema, to volatile Angelo, debut author Juliano Zaffino paints an unforgettable portrait of love, loyalty, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Blending psychological suspense with intimate family drama, and with echoes of Virginia Woolf and Shirley Jackson, The Steps is both deeply moving and eerily unsettling, a meditation on trauma, family bonds, and the thin line between tenderness and violence.’
The best place to order from to support The Steps is through this affiliate link to Bookshop.org UK. You can also order from a number of other places in the UK (Waterstones / Foyles / Hatchards) and Ireland (Tramp Press / Kennys). Or order directly from your local indie bookshop by giving them the ISBN: 9781915290205.
Praise for The Steps
* ‘In his debut, Juliano Zaffino shows himself to be a writer of tremendous authority and delicate touch’ – Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies, Matrix, Brawler and more
* ‘Brutal but tender, suffocating yet expansive, The Steps is an unflinching portrait of a family’s parts and its complex whole’ – Rebecca Perry, author of May We Feed The King
* ‘A tantalising study of sibling dynamics, the complicated repercussions of childhood, and the salvation of art’ – Sara Baume, author of handiwork, Opening Night and more
* ‘Vivid and unsettling; very much alive and very often gorgeous. It thrums with its own dark pulse’ – Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me To Ground, Redder Days, and From Out My Heart
* ‘Quick and vivid and clever’ – Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost In The Throat and Said The Dead
* ‘Intimate and eerie, The Steps offers us glimpses of grief, desire and family dynamics that intensify word by word into a finely balanced tale’ – Anthony Shapland, author of A Room Above a Shop
* ‘The Steps is possibly the most moving ghost story I’ve ever read. Or the most haunting love story – or possibly both’ – Ben Pester, author of Am I in the Right Place?, The Expansion Project, and Sail Away Land
* ‘An unsettling fever dream layered upon the sorrowful mundane … terrifying and beautiful and precise’ – Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, author of The Salt of Something New
* ‘A literary stylist, Zaffino transforms the familiar terrain of family life into something formally assured and psychologically sharp. […] The Steps is a debut of rare confidence, moving from domestic realism into formally inventive terrain without losing its emotional core. Zaffino emerges here as a writer of considerable intelligence, capable of reshaping the novel’s possibilities while remaining anchored in the lived experience of memory and survival‘ – Irish Times
* ‘A darkly compelling affair […] This unnerving ghost(ish) story is a tightly paced, unsettling slice of literary fiction that combines elements of kitchen-sink drama, gothic horror, psychological thriller and supernatural mystery’ – Irish Independent
* ‘This family saga is as creepy as anything Shirley Jackson or even an early Stephen King might have put together, and the writing is is beautifully crafted […] this first novel, unusually structured but thoroughly engrossing, is excellent’ – Meath Chronicle
Events
Juliano will be visiting a few bookshops and festivals around the UK and Ireland to discuss The Steps. If you would like Juliano to appear at your shop or festival, please contact Lucy Luck.
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Dates Future
More dates TBA!
Dates Past
24 April 2026, 4:00pm: in conversation with Caragh Maxwell at Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Galway
30 April 2026, 7:00pm: official launch event / in conversation with Ben Pester at Burley Fisher, London
Juliano at Cúirt, as drawn by Méabh McDonnell.
Juliano at the London launch, Burley Fisher Books, photographed by Antony Zacharias.
Press & Media
* Review (with spoilers!) by Anne Cunningham in the Meath Chronicle, 2 July 2026.
* Review by John Walshe in the Irish Independent, 27 June 2026.
* Interview with Nadine Matheson for The Conversation Podcast, 24 June 2026.
* Featured as a “brilliant new book” in The Gloss Magazine, 5 June 2026.
* Favourite reads for the Belfast Telegraph, 30 May 2026.
* Interview with Marjorie Brennan for the Irish Examiner, 23 May 2026.
* Review by Adam Wyeth in the Irish Times, 16 May 2026.
* Interview with Aoife Barry for Get Around To It Podcast, 11 May 2026.
* Interview with Martin Doyle for the Irish Times, 9 May 2026.
* An exclusive extract from the opening pages on RTÉ, 4 May 2026.
* Discussing the book on RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena with Rick O’Shea, 23 April 2026.
* ‘Beautifully unsettling and moving’ – Belfast Telegraph, 18 April 2026.
* The Steps is announced in The Bookseller, 27 November 2025.
