A LEOPARD-SKIN HAT by Anne Serre

Translated by Mark Hutchinson

Only two months in and, when it comes to literary prizes, 2025 is turning out to be quite the bumper year for novellas. Both the International Booker Prize and Republic of Consciousness Prize longlists just dropped and contain more book under 200 pages than over. In the coming weeks I’m going to try to review all of them, starting with this whack-a-doodle brainfelch by the mercurially odd, but consistently wonderful, Anne Serre.

Trying to explain a Serre book is an almost pointless endeavour. But here goes. A Narrator (not THE narrator) attempts to make sense of his relationship (are they friends? lovers? colleagues? Is he a stalker? Her creator? Someone pass me a drink!) with the ill-fated Fanny. He bears witness to a series of episodes in her life, and reflects on the meaning of her death. Underpinning it all is this Narrator’s navigation of Fanny’s complex mental health issues and tragic decline.

The whole thing is bizarre to the point of incomprehensible but, much like Serre’s other book, The Governess, it is carried along by utterly mesmerising prose and the elusive promise that if you just persevere it might make sense at some point. Kind of like life, really.

A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (Tr. Mark Hutchinson)
Lolli Editions, 2024
136 pages