A Leopard-Skin Hat

In A Leopard-Skin Hat, Anne Serre crafts a quietly devastating portrait of friendship, grief, and the delicate ties that bind us to those we cannot save. At its center is the narrator’s lifelong bond with Fanny, a brilliant, unpredictable woman whose mind is a battleground of psychological torment.

Told through a series of brief, luminous vignettes, the novel captures the narrator’s enduring devotion to Fanny—his childhood friend, his confidante, and his heartbreak. As he tries to hold her close while watching her unravel, their relationship teeters between tenderness and helpless sorrow. Through moments both surreal and achingly real, Serre explores how love persists in the face of suffering, and how storytelling becomes a way to preserve someone who is slipping away.

Both elegy and experiment, A Leopard-Skin Hat is a tribute to a life cut short and a meditation on the fragility of connection. With her trademark elegance and restraint, Serre blurs the boundaries of fiction and memory in a work that is as intimate as it is quietly profound.

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.