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A Leopard-Skin Hat

By Anne Serre
Penguin Classics
Series: Penguin International Writers
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Brief Description
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a heart-wrenching fable of enduring attachment by one of France's most original writers at work today. A Leopard-Skin Hat may be Anne Serre's most moving novel yet. A masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance, it is the story of an... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a heart-wrenching fable of enduring attachment by one of France's most original writers at work today.

A Leopard-Skin Hat may be Anne Serre's most moving novel yet. A masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance, it is the story of an intense friendship between the Narrator and his close childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from profound psychological disorders.

A series of short scenes paints the portrait of a strong-willed and tormented young woman battling many demons, and of the Narrator's loving and anguished attachment to her. Serre poignantly depicts the bewildering back and forth between hope and despair involved in such a relationship, while playfully calling into question the very form of the novel.

Written in the aftermath of the death of the author's little sister, A Leopard-Skin Hat is both the celebration of a tragically foreshortened life and a valedictory farewell.

Translated from French by Mark Hutchinson.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241791493

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 16 April 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Mark Hutchinson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 100g

Pages: 112

Collections

Anne Serre Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Penguin Classics: General Fiction Series: Penguin International Writers

About the Author

Anne Serre (b. 1960) is the author of seventeen works of fiction. Her first novel, Les Gouvernantes (The Governesses) was published in 1992 and praised by La Croix for its 'remarkable economy of style'. Among her distinctions are a 2008 Cino del Duca Foundation award and the 2020 Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle for her short-story collection Au coeur d'un ete tout en or. A Leopard-Skin Hat is the fourth of her books to appear in English. Mark Hutchinson was born in London in 1957 and lives in Paris. Among his many translations from the French are Rene Char's Hypnos- Notes from the French Resistance and The Inventors and Other Poems, and Emmanuel Hocquard's The Library at Trieste and The Gardens of Sallust.

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