At the age of thirty-eight, Elen finds herself unmoored in one of America''s Happiest Cities. Suddenly alone after her husband disappears, she finds herself without a home or job, and spends her days drinking in the shadows of the Cascade Mountains. There she encounters a group of four friends, Luka, Clover, George and Lyn - young, rich, and English. They are wealthy drifters, professional squatters, who tour ski resorts and break into empty Airbnbs. Inspired by the ideas of the 18th century utopian socialist Charles Fourier, they''re looking for a new way to be in the world - and to have a good time. When they bring Elen into their fold - and into their messy, entangled romantic relationships - she remains invisibly separated by their privilege, and by the optimism this privilege confers. But she is not immune to their allure - or to the disastrous fallout that threatens to flow from their reckless abandon, the horror never far from the surface of their seemingly perfect lives. Vital, cultish, and at times insufferable - can they give Elen something she doesn''t know she needs? And what is it that they want from her? Are darker forces at play in their utopian dreams? A meditation on the often irresistible pull of different ways of living, the dangers and seductive power of youthful idealism, and the slippages between friendship and love, Farewell Bend is a beguiling debut novel, reminiscent of Donna Tartt and Deborah Levy, that examines freedom, friendship, desire, and excess.

Autorentext
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'.

Klappentext

A Stylist and Radio Times pick for 2026

There are women with higher callings than motherhood. And there are their daughters.

Kolia is in her twenties, caring for other people's children and looking for a way out of London's dead-end days. She is not looking to be pulled back into the orbit of her passionate, fiery, vulnerable mother, but she may have no choice.

In Kolia's childhood, her mother loomed large, both saint and celebrity. Now, she will go to any lengths to repair relations with her estranged daughter.

A painful love letter to childishness, innocence and imagination, SUCKERFISH scrutinises what we really owe each other.

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