LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026
'We were charmed by the novel’s meditation on friendship and
grief, and its suggestion that the most meaningful truths can be found in the
shadows.' - Booker Prize Judges 2026
'One of our boldest writers' Deborah Levy
A magnificent work of shadow-play and a meditation on desire, metamorphosis and
mortality.
Flora is visiting home in Mexico when the family dog leaps up and bites her
hand. She winds up in hospital where she undergoes several surgeries under
anaesthesia and meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who
collects pre-cinema toys and instruments. The two of them embark on a series of
dream-like conversations in the hospital corridors. Wilhelmina puts on a magic
lantern show for Flora, leaving her spellbound.
When things take an unexpected turn, Flora finds herself entrusted with an
important mission. She returns to London, where she resumes her job polishing
silver at a jewellery shop, and strikes up a strange friendship with
Wilhelmina’s son, Max. As Flora dips in and out of her imagination, she is
increasingly aware it’s not only the magic lantern that projects, and her
perception of reality is subtly altered
NOVO