The owner of the nail salon in Souvankham Thammavongsa’s absorbing debut novel doesn’t bother to order different name tags for herself and her staff: they all just say ‘Susan’. It’s easier that way, she reckons. Everyone has black hair and black clothes, so customers can’t tell them apart anyway. Plus it means that Susan is always available for anyone who requests her.

Pick a Colour takes place over the course of a single day, narrated in the first person by 41-year-old Ning, the salon owner, whose past as a boxer has left her with a missing finger. Thammavongsa’s short story ‘Mani Pedi’ (2015) featured a boxer turned nail technician, Raymond, who found work at the Bird and Spa Salon, which reappears here as Ning’s former workplace. 

Thammavongsa, who was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand and grew up in Toronto, explored the lives of Lao immigrants in her 2020 short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, which won the Giller Prize, Canada’s leading literary award. She leaves ambiguous the country in which Pick a