Monstrum (Longlisted for the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize) - Lottie Mills

From Lottie Mills, the winner of the BBC Young Writers' Award in 2020, comes this beautifully crafted collection of stories. A father and daughter build a life for themselves on an isolated beach. But the outside world is pressing in. It's only a matter of time before their secret refuge is discovered. A young disabled woman opts to receive a perfect, pain-free body. Soon, however, she finds herself haunted by the one she cast off. A travelling circus master discovers the ideal addition to his cabinet of curiosities: 'damaged', 'grotesque', gifted. He plans to make her the star of his show; she plans to take her revenge. Monstrum captures the experience of characters excluded by a society that cannot accept their difference. Eerie, fantastical and hugely ambitious, this collection announces the arrival of an outstanding new literary voice.