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  • Published: 26 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405981620
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

As If




Trailblazing author Isabel Waidner returns with an existential cat-and-mouse story of grief, loss, ambition, and the possibility making oneself anew

Two men meet in a flat in London. They are total strangers and yet they look remarkably alike. Lewis is grieving his dead wife; Korine is hiding from his very-much-alive one. Lewis never had children; Korine is an ambivalent parent at best. Lewis is an erstwhile actor, too depressed to attend the big audition that has just fallen into his lap. Korine has tried a dozen dead-end jobs but never pursued his acting dreams.

Two men living mirror image lives. Each seeking a second chance to get things right. Each wanting what the other has.

As If is an existential farce about the road not taken. Surreal and slyly poignant, suffused with ironic melancholia, it is a parable for the twenty-first century everyman: a character trapped in reality’s hall of mirrors, endlessly searching for something to live for.

  • Published: 26 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405981620
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

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Praise for As If

Reading Waidner is like plugging into an electric socket of language and ideas

Guardian

Waidner pushes form to make us see the world around us in new ways, and perhaps even for the first time

Kamila Shamsie

The writer everyone is talking about . . . Their explosive sensibility and style are as far removed from mediocre prose and middle-class manners as you can imagine

Bernardine Evaristo
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