Shibboleth

Want to make it among the wealthy, upper-class students at the University of Oxford? Then you’d better have something interesting to say when people ask about your identity.

Luckily, Edward does. Though he can boast neither an expensive education nor a nice room in college, he does have a long-dead Muslim grandfather from an obscure African country... At the beginning of his second year, everyone wants to get close to him—including, to his astonishment, the beautiful and highly unstable Angelica Mountbatten-Jones. 

As Edward scrabbles to fit in, his new friends start to grow suspicious. How will they react when they realise he hasn’t been entirely honest? What will Angelica do if she finds out about his complicated feelings towards a Jewish girl on his course? Will Edward manage to carve out a space for himself at Oxford, or will the truth get in the way?

A darkly comic debut, Shibboleth drags the English campus novel into the divided, multicultural, hyperactive present day.

“A talent for comedy is rare in fiction. Lambert has it, in abundance.”—Tim Parks, author of Mr Geography

“Engrossing and thought-provoking.”—Tomiwa Olowade, author of This is Not America

“Gloriously impious and thrillingly alive."—Rob Doyle, author of Threshold