I live in a world of Susans. I got name tags for everyone who works at this nail salon, and on every one is printed the name “Susan”.
Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan.
On this summer’s day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze.
They listen and smile and nod.
But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth.
A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost.
A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
As the day’s work grinds on, the friction between Ning’s two identities – as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances – will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
Told over a single day with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa’s place as literature’s premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.
‘Hauntingly good’ – Ed Park
‘Subverts the comforting mundane’ – Pitchaya Sudbanthad
‘A master over the sentence’ – Daisy Johnson
‘One of the greatest novels I have ever read’ – Rita Bulwinkell
‘Wickedly funny and moving’ – Avni Doshi
‘A knockout: every punch lands’ – Eleanor Catton
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