Everest. Shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prose Prize - Ashani Lewis

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
''Lewis is superbly talented'' Katherine Rundell
''A remarkable novel: atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent'' Jenny Mustard
''A glittering, dark-edged tale . . . Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it'' Priscilla Morris
''A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds'' Telegraph