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 about your identity.

Luckily, Edward does. He may lack privilege and polish, but he can claim a long-dead Muslim grandfather from an obscure African country-and at Oxford, that’s enough to get him noticed. At the start of his second year, he suddenly finds himself in demand, even attracting the attention of the beautiful but volatile Angelica Mountbatten-Jones.

As Edward tries to belong, his carefully shaped story starts to unravel. How long before his friends grow suspicious? And what happens when his feelings-and his lies-become impossible to separate?

A darkly comic debut, Shibboleth drags the English campus novel into the fractured, hyper-aware present.

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 *