Suckerfish - Ashani Lewis

A Stylist and Radio Times pick for 2026There 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