'A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.'ALI SMITH'Entirely original.'STYLIST'Oyeyemi has mastered the art of bold, expansive storytelling.'IRENOSEN OKOJIE'A writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.'INDEPENDENTThe new novel from the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Helen Oyeyemi.Oyeyemi treats you to a kaleidoscopic weekend in Prague, as dazzling as it is effortlessly unique. Get lost in the story like you would an unfamiliar city and let it reward you with moments of philosophical clarity, wheelbarrow rides, raw emotion and raw onions.This novel is a holiday, an adventure, a marvel and a guide. It is a story about the lies behind the lies we tell and a city as a living thing, sustained by the lives of its inhabitants. Suffused with warmth and joy, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.

Helen Oyeyemi is the author of The Icarus Girl, The Opposite House, White is for Witching (which won the Somerset Maugham Award), Mr Fox, Boy, Snow, Bird, Gingerbread, What is Not Yours is Not Yours and Peaces, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. In 2013, Helen was included in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.