Everest

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.

'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