Suckerfish

In Suckerfish, every tender detail of a love between a child and parent comes alive. Ashani Lewis explores the knottiness of care and ambition with great empathy. – Sarvat Hasin, author of STRANGE GIRLSI savoured the prose. At once foreboding and meditative, each segment of Suckerfish is a window into a fully realised world: a Russian doll of narrative. The archetypal working, absent, vindictive mother that society is so scared of is fully realised here in complex glory. Lewis deftly manoeuvres between the horror and beauty of loving the mother terrifying, the mother critical, the mother magnificent: the one who hurts and loves you, and yet loves to hurt you. – Jess Shannon, author of CLEANERBrilliantly unsettling … The more bound up in the toxic mother-daughter dynamic we become, what was a merely uncomfortable read becomes downright disturbing. – ‘The Smart, Scandalous and Seriously Hyped Books to Read This February’ * Marie Claire *Lewis’s writing is likably feisty and alive, full of verve and pizzazz, packed with crunchy observation and a wry kind of energy … This is a cry of pure rage, of fury and powerlessness. – Julie Myerson * Guardian *Complicated, brilliant and achingly real … Suckerfish will quietly rip at your heart and then gently stitch it back up again. – Parisa Hashempour * The Skinny *

Ashani Lewis is a novelist and short story writer. She was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021 in their literary fiction category. She was a recipient of the 2025 Somerset Maugham Award for her debut novel, Winter Animals, which was also the winner of the 2025 Betty Trask Prize. Her short story collection, Everest, was shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prize. Both books were listed in Marie Claire’s ‘Best Books Of 2024’.

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