Winter Animals: ‘Remarkable – think THE SECRET HISTORY written by Raven Leilani’ Jenny Mustard

Winter Animals is a dark meditation on the dangers and seductive power of youthful idealism, and the slippages between friendship and love. It is an extraordinary debut examining freedom, friendship, desire, and excess.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 23 January 2025
Publisher: Dialogue

Ashani Lewis, the winner of the 2025 BETTY TRASK PRIZE, is a superbly talented author. Katherine Rundell, a reviewer, described her work as thoughtful, intelligent, and beautifully written. Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch. Marie Claire, a popular magazine, included Winter Animals in its list of the Best Books of 2024. The novel is set in one of America's Happiest Cities, where thirty-eight-year-old Elen is trapped under the shadow of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. Her husband has left her, and 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 enamored. Luka, Clover, George, and Lyn are wealthy squatters who drift between ski resorts and break 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. Winter Animals is a dark meditation on the dangers and seductive power of youthful idealism, and the slippages between friendship and love. It is an extraordinary debut that examines freedom, friendship, desire, and excess. Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls, describes it as a dreamlike, piercing examination of privilege, youth, and freedom. Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days, calls it atmospheric as hell, beautiful, and delightfully intelligent. Think The Secret History written by Raven Leilani.

Weight: 198g
Dimension: 163 x 218 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780349703312