Everest: Shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prose Prize - Hardcover

Lewis, Ashani

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0349703329 ISBN 13: 9780349703329

Publisher: Dialogue Books, 2024

Synopsis

A collection of diamond-sharp stories from an award-winning writer, for fans of Eliza Clark's She's Always Hungry and Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties.

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, author of WANDERING SOULS

'Lewis is superbly talented' Katherine Rundell, author of SUPER-INFINITE and THE GOLDEN MOLE

'A remarkable novel: atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent . . . Think THE SECRET HISTORY written by Raven Leilani' Jenny Mustard, author of OKAY DAYS

'Beautiful writing' FINANCIAL TIMES

'A glittering, dark-edged tale . . . Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it' Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES

'Compelling' THE IRISH TIMES

'A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds' TELEGRAPH

About this title

About the Author

Ashani Lewis is a novelist and short story writer. She was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021 in their literary fiction category. She was a recipient of the 2025 Somerset Maugham Award for her debut novel, Winter Animals, which was also the winner of the 2025 Betty Trask Prize. Her short story collection, Everest, was shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prize. Both books were listed in Marie Claire's 'Best Books Of 2024'.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Winter Animals

'Excellent . . . Ashani Lewis is superbly talented' Katherine Rundell, author of Super-Infinite

'A talented writer . . . Winter Animals is a dreamlike, piercing examination of privilege, youth and freedom' Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls

'A glittering, dark-edged tale of snow, hedonism, passion, friendship and squatting that explores what happens when a group of rich kids attempt to live out their questionable utopian ideals. Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it' Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies

'A remarkable novel: atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent. Its unique sentences sparkle with energy. Think The Secret History written by Raven Leilani. I devoured it and am left wanting more' Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days

'Thoughtful, intelligent and beautifully written . . . Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch' Marie Claire

'A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds' Telegraph

'Compelling' The Irish Times

From the Inside Flap

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dialogue Books
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349703329
• ISBN 13: 9780349703329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160