The Shadow of the Object is a 2026 novel by Mexican-British writer Chloe Aridjis, published in the UK by Chatto & Windus. It was on the longlist for the 2026 Booker Prize.
Plot While visiting relatives in Mexico City, Flora is attacked by the family dog. During her ensuing hospitalisation she meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German collector of pre-cinema toys and artefacts, who charms her with a magic-lantern show. Back in London, she contacts Wilhelmina's son, Max, with whom she develops a relationship.
Reception Writing in The Guardian, reviewer A. K. Blakemore described it as a "glowing, mythopoeic book" and said that even without its profound themes, it would be "an immense achievement based on the strange, impressionistic beauty of its prose alone".
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