The Shadow of the Object, by Chloe Aridjis (hardback)

Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.

Flora polishes silver for a living in a London jewellery shop. On a visit to her family in Mexico, the family dog bites her hand, and what should be a minor injury turns into a long stay in hospital and a run of operations. On the ward she meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman recovering from pneumonia, who collects optical toys and the devices that came before cinema. Through dreamlike conversations in the hospital corridors, and one unforgettable magic lantern show, the two become unlikely friends.

Back in London with a task Wilhelmina has entrusted to her, Flora returns to work and falls into a strange friendship with Wilhelmina's son, Max. Slowly the line between what she sees and what she imagines begins to blur, and she starts to suspect that the lantern is not the only thing throwing images onto the walls.

A quietly hypnotic novel about light, illusion and the ways we see, from the author of Book of Clouds and Sea Monsters.

Author: Chloe Aridjis
Publisher: Chatto & Windus (Penguin Random House)
Format: Hardback