The Shadow of the Object

**Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize**
'A glowing, mythopoeic book' AK Blakemore
'A beautiful, eerie, grief-haunted novel' Chris Power

Flora is visiting home in Mexico when the family dog bites her hand. She winds up in hospital where she undergoes several surgeries under anaesthesia. Here, she meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects pre-cinema toys. They embark on a series of dream-like conversations and 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 strikes up a strange friendship with Wilhelmina's son, Max, and finds her perception of reality is subtly altered.

'A beguiling tale of loss and connection' The Times
'A virtuoso of the gorgeously written art novel' Daily Mail
'Extraordinary ...both intoxicating and unsettling' Irish Times
'Aridjis is a revolutionary who is quietly changing the whole novel form' Neel Mukherjee