Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter
Cover: Shibboleth - Thomas Peermohamed Lambert

Thomas Peermohamed Lambert

Shibboleth

2025, pp. 384, Paperback
ISBN: 9781787705555
Region: Britain
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
£ 14.99
Where to buy Where to buy Where to buy

The book

A darkly comic tale that brings the satirical English campus novel into the divided, multicultural, hyperactive present day.

Edward is a shy, quietly droll student at Oxford. Thanks to a quirk of his family history – a lone, dead grandparent from Zanzibar – he finds himself enthusiastically adopted by the wealthy, privately educated upper echelons of the student body.

Several of Edward’s fellow students are determined to remake him to suit their own prejudices and fixations: to Youssef he becomes a pious Muslim, to Angelica – and her African-American best friend, Liberty - he is reimagined as an expert in African history and champion of civil rights.

Despite Edward’s new-found celebrity and ‘exotic’ appeal, he scrabbles to fit in with a crowd he rightly suspects will cast him aside the moment a more interesting specimen comes along.

Outside his hothouse circle of friends, a very different relationship is budding. A German-Jewish student named Rachel offers respite from the upper-class jostling of the others. But as the relationship flowers, Edward begins to feel both implicit and explicit pressure to reject her, at which point this essentially comic novel takes a dark and serious turn.

The author

Thomas Peermohamed Lambert
Thomas Peermohamed Lambert is a writer who divides his time between London and Oxford. In 2022, he was selected as a London Library Emerging Writer, and he is currently a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford. Shibboleth is his first novel.

Books by region

  • Cover: After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal - Merlin Holland

    Merlin Holland

    After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal

    2025, pp. 800, £ 25.00
    The definitive study of the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde after his death, written by Wilde’s only grandson
  • Cover: Vulture - Phoebe Greenwood

    Phoebe Greenwood

    Vulture

    2025, pp. 300, £ 16.99
    A gripping, no-holds-barred tale of war journalism and its deadly, darkly funny pitfalls
  • Cover: Dog - Rob Perry

    Rob Perry

    Dog

    2024, pp. 288, £ 9.99
    The moving story of a life-changing relationship between a boy and a dog
  • Cover: Dog - Rob Perry

    Rob Perry

    Dog

    2024, pp. 304, £ 14.99
    The moving story of a life-changing relationship between a boy and a dog
  • Cover: Lambda - David Musgrave

    David Musgrave

    Lambda

    2024, pp. 352, £ 9.99
    A chilling dystopia exploring AI technology and migration
  • Cover: Fifteen Wild Decembers - Karen Powell

    Karen Powell

    Fifteen Wild Decembers

    2024, pp. 288, £ 9.99
    A creative re-imagining of the short life of Emily Brontë, one of England’s greatest writers

More suggestions

  • Cover: Tatà - Valérie Perrin

    Valérie Perrin

    Tatà

    2026, pp. 592, £ 18.99
    The new novel by the international bestselling author of Fresh Water for Flowers
  • Cover: A Mask the Colour of the Sky - Basim Khandaqji

    Basim Khandaqji

    A Mask the Colour of the Sky

    2026, pp. 240, £ 14.99
    A novel of identity and resistance from one of Palestine’s most striking literary voices—written entirely from behind bars
  • Cover: Tangerinn - Emanuela Anechoum

    Emanuela Anechoum

    Tangerinn

    2026, pp. 256, £ 14.99
    The novel for a displaced generation
  • Cover: Mass Mothering - Sarah Bruni

    Sarah Bruni

    Mass Mothering

    2026, pp. 255, £ 12.99
    A haunting, indelible novel of collective grief, resistance, and the life-affirming virtue of testimony
  • Cover: Madelaine Before The Dawn - Sandrine Collette

    Sandrine Collette

    Madelaine Before The Dawn

    2026, pp. 208, £ 12.99
    A spellbinding tale of female defiance and rage
  • Cover: Floodlines - Saleem Haddad

    Saleem Haddad

    Floodlines

    2026, pp. 350, £ 14.99
    A sweeping, multi-generational novel that traces the fractured bonds between three Iraqi-British sisters