Overview
A STYLIST and RADIO TIMES Most Anticipated Book for 2026 There are women with higher callings than motherhood. And there are their daughters. Kolia is in her twenties, caring for other people's children and looking for a way out of London's dead-end days. She is not looking to be pulled back into the orbit of her passionate, fiery, vulnerable mother, but she may have no choice. In Kolia's childhood, her mother loomed large, both saint and celebrity. Now, she will go to any lengths to repair relations with her estranged daughter. A painful love letter to childishness, innocence and imagination, SUCKERFISH scrutinises what we really owe each other. Praise for Winter Animals, winner of the 2025 Betty Trask Prize 'Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch' MARIE CLAIRE 'Dreamlike, piercing' Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS 'Lewis is superbly talented' Katherine Rundell, author of SUPER-INFINITE and THE GOLDEN MOLE 'Atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent' Jenny Mustard, author of OKAY DAYS 'Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it' Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES 'A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds' TELEGRAPH
Full Product Details
Author: Ashani Lewis ,
Priscilla Layne
Publisher: John Murray Press
Imprint: Dialogue Books
Dimensions:
Width: 13.80cm
, Height: 2.60cm
, Length: 21.80cm
Weight: 0.351kg
ISBN: 9780349703367
ISBN 10: 0349703361
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 26 February 2026
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
In Suckerfish, every tender detail of a love between a child and parent comes alive. Ashani Lewis explores the knottiness of care and ambition with great empathy. -- Sarvat Hasin, author of STRANGE GIRLS I savoured the prose. At once foreboding and meditative, each segment of Suckerfish is a window into a fully realised world: a Russian doll of narrative. The archetypal working, absent, vindictive mother that society is so scared of is fully realised here in complex glory. Lewis deftly manoeuvres between the horror and beauty of loving the mother terrifying, the mother critical, the mother magnificent: the one who hurts and loves you, and yet loves to hurt you. -- Jess Shannon, author of CLEANER
Author Information
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'.
