From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author comes a collection of uniquely inventive stories that thread the labyrinth of coincidence, chance, and connections missed and made.
What happens when you run into Death in a busy train station? (You know he’s Death because when he smiles, your cell phone goes dead.) What if your lover falls in love with a tree? Should you be jealous? From the woman pursued by a band of bagpipers in full regalia to the artist who’s built a seven-foot boat out of secondhand copies of The Great Gatsby, Smith’s characters are offbeat, charming, sexy, and as wonderfully complex as life itself.
“Ali Smith has got style, ideas and punch. Read her.” —Jeanette Winterson
“One of Britain’s major talents. . . . Startlingly accomplished.” —The Atlantic Monthly
“A joy to read.” —Sunday Times (London)
“Smith is a gifted and meticulous architect of character and voice.” —The Washington Post
“She’s street-savvy and poignant at once. . . . There’s a kind of stainless steel clarity at the center of her fiction.” —The Boston Globe
“Smith proves herself an experimental writer even your mother could love.” —Elle
ALI SMITH is the author of many works of fiction, including, most recently, Summer, Spring, Winter, Autumn, Public library and other stories, and How to be both, which won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, and the Costa Novel of the Year Award. Her work has four times been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Born in Inverness, Scotland, she lives in Cambridge, England.
From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author comes a collection of uniquely inventive stories that thread the labyrinth of coincidence, chance, and connections missed and made.
What happens when you run into Death in a busy train station? (You know he’s Death because when he smiles, your cell phone goes dead.) What if your lover falls in love with a tree? Should you be jealous? From the woman pursued by a band of bagpipers in full regalia to the artist who’s built a seven-foot boat out of secondhand copies of The Great Gatsby, Smith’s characters are offbeat, charming, sexy, and as wonderfully complex as life itself.
Praise
“Ali Smith has got style, ideas and punch. Read her.” —Jeanette Winterson
“One of Britain’s major talents. . . . Startlingly accomplished.” —The Atlantic Monthly
“A joy to read.” —Sunday Times (London)
“Smith is a gifted and meticulous architect of character and voice.” —The Washington Post
“She’s street-savvy and poignant at once. . . . There’s a kind of stainless steel clarity at the center of her fiction.” —The Boston Globe
“Smith proves herself an experimental writer even your mother could love.” —Elle
ALI SMITH is the author of many works of fiction, including, most recently, Summer, Spring, Winter, Autumn, Public library and other stories, and How to be both, which won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, and the Costa Novel of the Year Award. Her work has four times been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Born in Inverness, Scotland, she lives in Cambridge, England.
