The Shadow of the Object

‘We were charmed by the novel’s meditation on friendship and grief, and its suggestion that the most meaningful truths can be found in the shadows.’ * Booker Prize Judges 2026 *
‘Chloe Aridjis is a revolutionary who is quietly changing the whole novel form. She is mining the richest seam in the vast field of fiction and coming up with gold. Her radiantly lyrical and intelligent writing is thrilling to read.’ * Neel Mukherjee *
‘Clandestine, compassionate, and ever so slightly off-kilter, Chloe Aridjis’s magnificent sleight of hand reshuffles the novel and places before us a beautiful and mischievous magic lantern of a book that casts out a multitude of unforgettable scenes, while shining a steady granular light on the hidden depths of the human psyche.’ * Claire-Louise Bennett *
‘The Shadow of the Object would be an immense achievement based on the strange, impressionistic beauty of its prose alone… [a] glowing, mythopoeic book… I can only concur with Aridjis’s many admirers that she is one of the boldest writers at work in English today.’ * AK Blakemore, the Guardian *
‘In the world The Shadow of the Object brings to light – now sharply focused, now only uncertainly defined – Chloe Aridjis patiently layers signs and symbols into a resonant network. A beautiful, eerie, grief-haunted novel.’ * Chris Power *
‘With The Shadow of the Object Aridjis cements her status as the laureate of the peripatetic — of all that’s serendipitous, strange, improbable and, for these very reasons, true.’ * Tom McCarthy *
‘There is a keen intelligence and an eerie sensuality to everything that Chloe Aridjis writes. Reading The Shadow of the Object is a little like entering a dream state. A subtly addictive and intensely atmospheric experience. You won’t want to wake up.’ * Rupert Thomson *
‘Lucid and fabulous, and it bites.’ * Daisy Hildyard *
‘A wildly brilliant and beautifully crafted novel. By turns mesmerising, magical, elegiac and funny, it’s utterly compelling, original and surprising. I devoured it.’ * Jennifer Higgie *
[An] enchanting new novel… Aridjis never allows her narrative to become surreal, but revels in the ‘marvellous real’. She creates a world full of wonder without indulging in the impossible * Literary Review *
‘Aridjis is a virtuoso of the gorgeously written art novel… A digressive and symbolically rich meditation on the nature of storytelling, sparkling with zany detail’ * Daily Mail *
‘The book has an intense flavour that can only come from an author’s deep investment in their material… Aridjis has a way of telling a story that makes us believe. Even the most unusual details feel emotionally true — and that, surely, is the essence of fiction’ * Financial Times *
‘A mesmerising work, infinitely subtle, elliptical, and spellbinding.’ * SAGA Magazine *
’[An] extraordinary novel… Aridjis’s prose, like the magic lantern itself, is hypnotic, transportive’ * Andrew Durbin, Frieze *
Both ruminative and action-packed, the story balances quirkiness with an immersion in the darkness of 20th-century history * Observer *
‘What marks out Chloe Aridjis as a novelist is her ability to create atmospheres and ambiences…The Shadow of the Object is another quiet triumph for Aridjis’ * Spectator *
‘Elegant, elusive and quietly hypnotic — a cabinet of curiosities in prose form. A must-read, and one that rewards lingering in its half-light’ * Leo Boix *
Aridjis writes with a meticulous, almost jeweller-like precision… a novel that is elegant, elusive and quietly hypnotic… A must-read, and one that rewards lingering in its half-light * Morning Star *
Meditative yet propulsive, this first novel on the longlist explores questions of memory, identity, and the nature of reality through Aridjis’s richly atmospheric prose * Cold Magazine *
‘The ruminative mood is reminiscent of WG Sebald’ * Guardian *
The Shadow of the Object is a beguiling tale of loss and connection that rewards readers content to pause and admire the view * The Times *
This elliptical yet accessible meditation on friendship and life’s passing pairs idiosyncratic imagery with a lightness of touch akin to enchantment * Mail on Sunday *

Chloe Aridjis is the author of Book of Clouds, which won the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger in France, Asunder, and Sea Monsters, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She writes for various art journals and was a guest curator at Tate Liverpool. In 2014 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her most recent book is the collection Dialogue with a Somnambulist: Stories, Essays, and a Portrait Gallery. She lives in London.

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