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Suckerfish
Kolia has sworn this is the last time she'll be lured home again by her mother, the most charming woman on earth . . . and probably the most chaotic. Her mother is a world class human rights lawyer - and a law unto herself - whilst Kolia currently spends her days joylessly tutoring the spoiled children of the uber rich. But as Kolia tries to escape her mother's gravitational pull and find her own calling in a homeland she's never visited before adulthood, she begins to wonder if she's running away - or slowly turning into the woman she's trying to leave behind.
Praise for Winter Animals, winner of the 2025 Betty Trask Prize
'Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch' MARIE CLAIRE
'Dreamlike, piercing' Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS
'Lewis is superbly talented' Katherine Rundell, author of SUPER-INFINITE and THE GOLDEN MOLE
'Atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent' Jenny Mustard, author of OKAY DAYS
'Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it' Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES
'A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds' TELEGRAPH
Praise for Winter Animals, winner of the 2025 Betty Trask Prize
'Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch' MARIE CLAIRE
'Dreamlike, piercing' Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS
'Lewis is superbly talented' Katherine Rundell, author of SUPER-INFINITE and THE GOLDEN MOLE
'Atmospheric as hell, beautiful and delightfully intelligent' Jenny Mustard, author of OKAY DAYS
'Exhilarating and fabulous, I raced through it' Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES
'A debut full of ideas. I have the sense that this is the first of many new worlds' TELEGRAPH
- GenresAdult
226 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 26, 2026
2 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2026
complicated mother-daughter relationship final boss.
suckerfish follows kolia, a woman in her twenties who has spent years trying to escape the clutches of her narcissistic and emotionally manipulative mother, lalita. though lalita is a successful human rights lawyer, her manic and disorganised personality created an unstable home for kolia, who yearns to be free of it but has a strong sense of obligation towards her two younger half-brothers, who are often neglected and rely on kolia.
lewis’ writing is incredibly raw, creating an atmosphere that becomes increasingly tense and claustrophobic, mirroring the suffocation kolia feels from her relationship with her mother. lewis deftly explores kolia’s reckonings with her own and her family’s cultural roots (which seems to be northern sri lanka), her experience of having a brown mother and a white father, and assimilation in a white society (one character refers to kolia as ‘the whitest brown person she knows’). kolia is the epitome of the burden of the eldest daughter, and through her, lewis is able to explore generational trauma and repeating cycles of abuse in a family.
a standout to me was how the house (referred to as no. 25 in the book) is a character in its own right, a haunted house of sorts as it holds all the chaos and pain of the character’s pasts. though very sad, i read this novel quickly and it held my attention all the way to the end, which feels like a punch in the gut with how soberingly realistic it is.
thank you john murray press for the advanced copy! suckerfish comes out on 26 feb.
suckerfish follows kolia, a woman in her twenties who has spent years trying to escape the clutches of her narcissistic and emotionally manipulative mother, lalita. though lalita is a successful human rights lawyer, her manic and disorganised personality created an unstable home for kolia, who yearns to be free of it but has a strong sense of obligation towards her two younger half-brothers, who are often neglected and rely on kolia.
lewis’ writing is incredibly raw, creating an atmosphere that becomes increasingly tense and claustrophobic, mirroring the suffocation kolia feels from her relationship with her mother. lewis deftly explores kolia’s reckonings with her own and her family’s cultural roots (which seems to be northern sri lanka), her experience of having a brown mother and a white father, and assimilation in a white society (one character refers to kolia as ‘the whitest brown person she knows’). kolia is the epitome of the burden of the eldest daughter, and through her, lewis is able to explore generational trauma and repeating cycles of abuse in a family.
a standout to me was how the house (referred to as no. 25 in the book) is a character in its own right, a haunted house of sorts as it holds all the chaos and pain of the character’s pasts. though very sad, i read this novel quickly and it held my attention all the way to the end, which feels like a punch in the gut with how soberingly realistic it is.
thank you john murray press for the advanced copy! suckerfish comes out on 26 feb.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
An exploration of a complicated relationship between a narcissistic mother and an aimless, conflicted daughter.
Lalita is a successful human rights lawyer, but wildly chaotic and disorganised in her personal life, this also spills into her work.
Kolia her daughter is trying to separate herself from her mother, but with a strong sense of duty and two young half brothers who need her and want her to be around the family home more often, she is torn.
Kolia works as a private tutor for privileged families, employment which leaves her unfulfilled and unsatisfied. She is in an unsatisfactory on-off sexual relationship with Gabriel. She gains much more succour and support from her best friend Mia.
Since her widowhood Lalita’s mother Ammama has founded a school in her village (in what I believe is in the north of Sri Lanka.) Apart from allowing the family to live in her large London house Ammama infrequently visits the UK family, as she is occupied fully with her ‘good works’ abroad.
The house is a character of its own in the novel, from an old lipsticked message scrawled on the living room wall, now obscured by furniture, to a permanently locked master bedroom and rooms full of quirky furniture, this is a home which has seen some dramatic behaviours.
The author writes well and clearly shows the dynamics between the two women. The ways in which Kolia is similar to her mother are explored. Her fight to extricate herself and become independent of their fraught relationship made me root for her.
The ending is a little twisty and some, I suspect, will find it unsatisfying.
I found that my attention waned at times. I found myself wondering if I really cared for any of the characters, not finding them particularly intriguing, amusing or compelling. But perhaps you don’t need to, maybe a good book can be a depiction of people whom are utterly different from you and your family?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.
Lalita is a successful human rights lawyer, but wildly chaotic and disorganised in her personal life, this also spills into her work.
Kolia her daughter is trying to separate herself from her mother, but with a strong sense of duty and two young half brothers who need her and want her to be around the family home more often, she is torn.
Kolia works as a private tutor for privileged families, employment which leaves her unfulfilled and unsatisfied. She is in an unsatisfactory on-off sexual relationship with Gabriel. She gains much more succour and support from her best friend Mia.
Since her widowhood Lalita’s mother Ammama has founded a school in her village (in what I believe is in the north of Sri Lanka.) Apart from allowing the family to live in her large London house Ammama infrequently visits the UK family, as she is occupied fully with her ‘good works’ abroad.
The house is a character of its own in the novel, from an old lipsticked message scrawled on the living room wall, now obscured by furniture, to a permanently locked master bedroom and rooms full of quirky furniture, this is a home which has seen some dramatic behaviours.
The author writes well and clearly shows the dynamics between the two women. The ways in which Kolia is similar to her mother are explored. Her fight to extricate herself and become independent of their fraught relationship made me root for her.
The ending is a little twisty and some, I suspect, will find it unsatisfying.
I found that my attention waned at times. I found myself wondering if I really cared for any of the characters, not finding them particularly intriguing, amusing or compelling. But perhaps you don’t need to, maybe a good book can be a depiction of people whom are utterly different from you and your family?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.
February 3, 2026
An interesting tension between a narcissistic, demanding mother and an aimless, conflicted daughter who feels too much obligation. If you like reading about messed up mother-daughter relationships, this one’s for you!
Ashani Lewis’ writing is incredibly readable; I flew through this. With an ease which many stories of a similarly complex nature lack, she develops a deep enough view of the main characters, their relationship and the secondary characters, without going too far into rambling beyond what was necessary. It’s a good examination of how family trauma and problems are passed on through generations. What Lewis does really well is creating a moral conflict for the reader by allowing us to see the mother’s behaviour from her daughter’s. Therefore; we recognise the disastrous consequences of her attention-seeking antics, while emphasising with Kolia’s overwhelming sense of duty, particularly after learning more about her mother’s background, upbringing and “altruistic” job. The ending was a good choice, I feel, and leaves an ultimate sting for anyone (like me) who was rooting for Kolia to get her life back and wriggle away from her mother’s grasp, while also allowing the reader to reflect on what is fair in a family relationship, and how far will someone really go to know their family loves them?
I’d personally recommend for fans of Eliza Clark’s Penance and Nussaibah Younis’ Fundamentally, as this book also has a slightly comic take on more serious matters with a lot of messed up relationships added in. I think the younger writing styles and ease of reading also match up.
Ashani Lewis’ writing is incredibly readable; I flew through this. With an ease which many stories of a similarly complex nature lack, she develops a deep enough view of the main characters, their relationship and the secondary characters, without going too far into rambling beyond what was necessary. It’s a good examination of how family trauma and problems are passed on through generations. What Lewis does really well is creating a moral conflict for the reader by allowing us to see the mother’s behaviour from her daughter’s. Therefore; we recognise the disastrous consequences of her attention-seeking antics, while emphasising with Kolia’s overwhelming sense of duty, particularly after learning more about her mother’s background, upbringing and “altruistic” job. The ending was a good choice, I feel, and leaves an ultimate sting for anyone (like me) who was rooting for Kolia to get her life back and wriggle away from her mother’s grasp, while also allowing the reader to reflect on what is fair in a family relationship, and how far will someone really go to know their family loves them?
I’d personally recommend for fans of Eliza Clark’s Penance and Nussaibah Younis’ Fundamentally, as this book also has a slightly comic take on more serious matters with a lot of messed up relationships added in. I think the younger writing styles and ease of reading also match up.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I will always pick up a book about mothers and daughters.
Suckerfish didn’t disappoint with its portrayal of a complicated, passionate, but ultimately emotionally manipulative mother who throws herself fully into her work as a human rights lawyer to the detriment of her young daughter’s care and upbringing. This novel mostly follows the fallout of this strained relationship through the perspective of the daughter, Kolia, as she juggles finding her purpose as a twenty-something while managing her mother’s various breakdowns and guilt trips.
It was interesting to follow three generations of women, from Kolia’s grandmother and mother who were born in Sri Lanka to London-born Kolia, as they each strive for something more than their mother had before them…. but also repeat certain cycles of abuse that they experienced in their own relationship with their mother.
struggles to find both her purpose and connection with her family, but she also works hard in a very valiant way to break out of patterns of behavior that she knows are not going to help her accomplish what she wants. I think that some of the POV-jumping that occurs may have distracted from the main plot, but Kolia shines as a young person looking to take care of her family and herself. If you like stories about spiky mother-daughter relationships, questions of what we owe our parents and what they might owe us, and coming-of-age stories, this would be a great one to pick up.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Suckerfish didn’t disappoint with its portrayal of a complicated, passionate, but ultimately emotionally manipulative mother who throws herself fully into her work as a human rights lawyer to the detriment of her young daughter’s care and upbringing. This novel mostly follows the fallout of this strained relationship through the perspective of the daughter, Kolia, as she juggles finding her purpose as a twenty-something while managing her mother’s various breakdowns and guilt trips.
It was interesting to follow three generations of women, from Kolia’s grandmother and mother who were born in Sri Lanka to London-born Kolia, as they each strive for something more than their mother had before them…. but also repeat certain cycles of abuse that they experienced in their own relationship with their mother.
struggles to find both her purpose and connection with her family, but she also works hard in a very valiant way to break out of patterns of behavior that she knows are not going to help her accomplish what she wants. I think that some of the POV-jumping that occurs may have distracted from the main plot, but Kolia shines as a young person looking to take care of her family and herself. If you like stories about spiky mother-daughter relationships, questions of what we owe our parents and what they might owe us, and coming-of-age stories, this would be a great one to pick up.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The ending was truly heartbreaking. Also reading this at the same time as Transcendent Kingdom was a bit much, they have a lot of VERY similar themes
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews