Choose a Colour

Suwankham Tammavongsa’s debut novel—winner of the O. Henry Prize and a two-time recipient of the Giller Prize.

Former boxer Ning runs a manicure salon. Here, she is just another Susan: that’s what they call all the master technicians so clients don’t have to struggle to pronounce the unfamiliar “exotic” names. People from the prosperous world look down on women like them. On this hot summer day, as always, Susan—strings of the same routine—files nails, trims, paints, and plucks. They listen closely, smile, and nod along, while endlessly trading jokes, gossiping, and mocking the customers in a language that no one around understands.

Ning can read people in an instant. Behind her unassuming exterior lies a sharp mind and a complex, deep character. She’s captivated by the rhythm of the work and its weight, yet at the same time she can’t shake memories of plans that never came to pass and chances that were lost. She tries to untangle the tension in the relationships among the other Susans—their anxieties and desires hiding behind endless talk and barbed remarks. And the closer the end of the shift gets, the more clearly the conflict emerges between two sides of Ning: an unnamed salon worker and a careful witness to her own life.

A biting, astonishingly accurate, and witty story contained within a single working day, yet touching on an entire layer of sharp social issues. The novel opens a closed female world—with its own rules, language, habits, and rituals—above all of which remain two words: “Choose a color.”

For readers who love contemporary Asian literature and books about pressing social problems.

Will appeal to fans of concise prose and blunt humor, as well as to those looking for a very small book.