THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

The unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet

'A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.'

Here we are in extraordinary times.
Is this history?

What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other?
What have we lost?
What stays with us?
What does it take to unlock our future?

Following her astonishing quartet of Seasonal novels, Ali Smith again lights a way for us through the nightmarish now, in a vital celebration of companionship in all its forms.

'Every hello, like every voice, holds its story ready, waiting.'

Praise for the Seasonal Quartet

A ONCE IN A GENERATION SERIES

'State-of-the-nation novels which understand that the nation is you, is me, is all of us' New Statesman

'Ali Smith is lighting us a path out of the nightmarish now' Observer

'A book to savour, a literary tour de force that captures the nation's psyche exquisitely' Evening Standard on Summer

Summer won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, 2021

Autumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 2017

Summer was a Sunday Times Number 1 bestseller

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE and the ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION

A masterful, exuberant novel from the acclaimed author of How to be both and the ongoing Seasonal quartet


'Ali Smith has got style, ideas and punch. Read her' Jeanette Winterson

'As infectious as a pop song, the story bursts open from the very first page and demands to be read in one sitting' The Times

'Hotel World is essential reading from a major talent' Independent

Five people: four are living, three are strangers, two are sisters, one is dead. In her highly acclaimed and most ambitious book to date, the brilliant young Scottish writer Ali Smith brings alive five unforgettable characters and traces their intersecting lives. This is a short novel with big themes (time, chance, money, death) but an eye for tiny detail: the taste of dust, the weight of a few coins in the hand, the pleasurable pain of a stone in one's shoe . . .

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now.

'Her best yet, a dazzling hymn to hope, uniting the past and present with a chorus of voices' Observer

What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?

Spring. The great connective.

With an eye to the migrancy of story over time, and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown Smith opens the door.

The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story?

Hope springs eternal.

Discover all four instalments: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Ali Smith's new novel, Companion piece, is available now.

*****

'An astonishing accomplishment and a book for all seasons' Independent

'Smith is a masterful storyteller . . . Savour it' Evening Standard

'Infectious in its energy and warmth' Daily Telegraph

SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2017

A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now.

'Undoubtedly Smith at her best. Puckish, yet elegant; angry, but comforting' The Times

Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.

Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever . . .

Discover all four instalments: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Ali Smith's new novel, Companion piece, is available now.

*****

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

'Undoubtedly Smith at her best. Puckish, yet elegant; angry, but comforting' The Times

'Bold and brilliant' Observer

'Terrific, extraordinary, playful . . . There is an awful lot to lift the soul' Daily Mail

A wildly inventive collection of fiction from the MAN BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED and BAILEYS PRIZE-WINNING author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet

'She's a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense' Alain de Botton

'I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul' Evening Standard

Traduit de l'anglais par Laetitia Devaux.


Georgia (dite George), une adolescente de seize ans qui vient de perdre sa mère, est en admiration devant un tableau d'un peintre méconnu : le San Vincenzo Ferreri de Francesco del Cossa, exposé à la National Gallery de Londres. Ce qu'elle ignore, c'est qu'elle est justement observée par le fantôme de ce peintre, catapulté en plein vingt-et-unième siècle.


Mais le fantôme de Francesco del Cossa ne se contente pas d'observer George : il porte sur le monde contemporain son regard d'homme de la Renaissance tout en évoquant sa vie et les raisons qui l'ont conduit à tomber dans l'oubli. Francesco serait en réalité une femme déguisée en homme pour pouvoir vivre de son art...


Construit comme un diptyque, Comment être double est le portrait original et émouvant de deux personnages marqués par l'amour et l'injustice. Dans ce jeu de miroir vertigineux, Ali Smith explore les fluctuations de l'identité.

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021

A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now.

'A maestra's portrait of her age . . . remarkable' Guardian

In the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time.

This is a story about people on the brink of change. They're family, but they think they're strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common?

Summer.

Discover all four instalments: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Ali Smith's new novel, Companion piece, is available now.

*****
'The first great coronavirus novel - a book to savour, a literary tour de force' Evening Standard


'Exquisite. Smith is in a class of her own' Nicola Sturgeon

'An astonishing finale to a prescient series . . . Ali Smith brilliantly weaves strands of joy and celebration to end her Seasonal Quartet' Irish Times