Description

Want to make it among the wealthy, upper-class students at the University of Oxford? Then you’d better have something interesting to say when people ask about your identity.

Luckily, Edward does. Though he can boast neither an expensive education nor a nice room in college, he does have a long-dead Muslim grandfather from an obscure African country… At the beginning of his second year, everyone wants to get close to him-including, to his astonishment, the beautiful and highly unstable Angelica Mountbatten-Jones.

As Edward scrabbles to fit in, his new friends start to grow suspicious. How will they react when they realise he hasn’t been entirely honest? What will Angelica do if she finds out about his complicated feelings towards a Jewish girl on his course? Will Edward manage to carve out a space for himself at Oxford, or will the truth get in the way?

A darkly comic debut, Shibboleth drags the English campus novel into the divided, multicultural, hyperactive present day.

“A talent for comedy is rare in fiction. Lambert has it, in abundance.”-Tim Parks, author of Mr Geography

“Engrossing and thought-provoking.”-Tomiwa Olowade, author of This is Not America

“Gloriously impious and thrillingly alive.”-Rob Doyle, author of Threshold

Publisher Review

“A talent for comedy is rare in fiction. Lambert has it, in abundance. He knows the best models from the past and applies them with devastating effect the follies of the present. Imagine Waugh on woke, either of the Amis’s on identity politics. Hilarity and despair are guaranteed.” * Tim Parks, author of Mr Geography * “Shibboleth is an engrossing and thought-provoking debut. It is a pleasure to read a novel that skilfully navigates through the tricky waters of contemporary identity politics. Thomas Peermohamed Lambert is a name to watch.” * Tomiwa Owolade, author of This is Not America * “Gloriously impious and thrillingly alive, Shibboleth rides the blast waves of epistemic and ideological chaos rocking the great centres of Western learning. Every page hosts an evenly matched bout between insight and hilarity.” * Rob Doyle, author of Threshold * “If Kingsley Amis were alive today and wrote a brilliantly funny novel laughing at our contemporary pieties, it might read something like this.” * Toby Lloyd, author of Fervour * “A razor-sharp comedy of manners perfectly attuned to the peculiarities of our time.” * Sarah Thomas, author of Queen K * “Funny, interesting, and unique, a campus satire for the era of wokeness.” * Alexander Starritt, author of We Germans *