Ashani Lewis

Kolia has sworn this is the last time she''ll be lured home again by her mother, the most charming woman on earth . . . and probably the most chaotic. Her mother is a world class human rights lawyer - and a law unto herself - whilst Kolia currently spends her days joylessly tutoring the spoiled children of the uber rich. But as Kolia tries to escape her mother''s gravitational pull and find her own calling in a homeland she''s never visited before adulthood, she begins to wonder if she''s running away - or slowly turning into the woman she''s trying to leave behind.

What happens when you reach Everest''s peak? Is it everything you dreamed?In a magnetic follow-up to Winter Animals, Ashani Lewis'' debut collection takes a kaleidoscopic approach to desire - its obsessions, its grotesque demands and the distance it creates between us - and the strange things we stubbornly, hopefully, desperately expect from our lives.A dying woman dedicates her life to Antarctic ice; an All-American star longs for a romance that defies convention - to the detriment of his carefully curated reputation; a woman seeking her exes'' opinions on a breast augmentation takes us on a whirlwind tour of the complicated, intertwined lives of urbanites; a singer prepares for her film debut, pushing her humanity to its limits at an unusual acting school; a newlywed couple put their marriage to the ultimate test: Everest. In these twenty-one striking stories, Lewis creates a stark world of fleeting infatuations, violent compulsions, unexpected solace and the sombre ghost of memories.Praise for WINTER ANIMALS:''Thoughtful, intelligent and beautifully written . . . Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch'' Marie Claire''A dreamlike, piercing examination of privilege, youth and freedom'' Cecile Pin''Lewis is superbly talented'' Katherine Rundell''A remarkable novel: atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent'' Jenny Mustard''A glittering, dark-edged tale . . . Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it'' Priscilla Morris''A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds'' Telegraph

**Winner of the 2025 BETTY TRASK PRIZE**'Excellent . . . Ashani Lewis is superbly talented.' Katherine Rundell'Thoughtful, intelligent and beautifully written . . . Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch.' Marie Claire, "Best Books of 2024"In one of America's Happiest Cities, thirty-eight-year-old Elen is trapped under the shadow of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. Her husband has left her. Her belongings are in the boot of her car. Her days are filled mostly with silence and drinking. When she meets four English teenagers in an empty bar, she is enamoured. Luka, Clover, George and Lyn are wealthy squatters, drifting between ski resorts and breaking into empty AirBnBs. When they bring Elen into their fold - and into their messy, entangled relationships - she senses a violent secret that fuels the four's never-ending disappearing act. Dazzling, cultish and intensely committed to creating their own utopia, they force Elen to ruminate on the irresistible pull of bright young things. She doesn't understand what they want from her, but how can she leave when she has nowhere else to g? dark meditation on the dangers and seductive power of youthful idealism, and the slippages between friendship and love, Winter Animals is an extraordinary debut examining freedom, friendship, desire and excess. 'A dreamlike, piercing examination of privilege, youth and freedom.' Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls'Atmospheric as hell, beautiful, and delightfully intelligent . . . Think The Secret History written by Raven Leilani.' Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days