**Winner of the 2025 BETTY TRASK PRIZE**'Excellent . . . Ashani Lewis is superbly talented.' Katherine Rundell'Thoughtful, intelligent and beautifully written . . . Lewis is definitely a new talent to watch.' Marie Claire, "Best Books of 2024"In one of America's Happiest Cities, thirty-eight-year-old Elen is trapped under the shadow of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. Her husband has left her. Her belongings are in the boot of her car. Her days are filled mostly with silence and drinking. When she meets four English teenagers in an empty bar, she is enamoured. Luka, Clover, George and Lyn are wealthy squatters, drifting between ski resorts and breaking into empty AirBnBs. When they bring Elen into their fold - and into their messy, entangled relationships - she senses a violent secret that fuels the four's never-ending disappearing act. Dazzling, cultish and intensely committed to creating their own utopia, they force Elen to ruminate on the irresistible pull of bright young things. She doesn't understand what they want from her, but how can she leave when she has nowhere else to go?A dark meditation on the dangers and seductive power of youthful idealism, and the slippages between friendship and love, Winter Animals is an extraordinary debut examining freedom, friendship, desire and excess. 'A dreamlike, piercing examination of privilege, youth and freedom.' Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls'Atmospheric as hell, beautiful, and delightfully intelligent . . . Think The Secret History written by Raven Leilani.' Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days