SHORTLISTED FOR THE GILLER PRIZE 2025 From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham
Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness love labor and class. 'I live in a
world of Susans. I got name tags for everyone who works at this nail salon and on every one is
printed the name "Susan".' 'One of the greatest novels I have ever read' RITA BULWINKELL
'Wickedly funny and moving' AVNI DOSHI 'A knockout: every punch lands' ELEANOR CATTON Ning is
a retired boxer but to the customers who visit her nail salon she is just another worker
named Susan. On this summer's day much like any other the Susans buff and clip and polish and
tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer Ning is a woman of
rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her
work but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman
navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans whose greatest fears and
desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on the friction
between Ning's two identities - as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own
circumstances - will gather electric and crackling force and at last demand a reckoning with
the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Told over a single day with
razor-sharp precision and wit Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as
literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience in its myriad complex and slyly
subversive forms. 'Hauntingly good' ED PARK 'Subverts the comforting mundane' PITCHAYA
SUDBANTHAD 'A master over the sentence' DAISY JOHNSON Reader Reviews: 'Unlike anything I've
read before a talent to watch' (5-star review) 'The prose was liquid gold' (5-star review)
'I was devastated to finish it so soon' (5-star review)
