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

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 sparkling satire from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet

'Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly clever and profoundly affecting' Guardian

'There once was a man who, one night between the main course and the sweet at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party . . .'

As time passes by and the consequences of this stranger's actions ripple outwards, touching the owners, the guests, the neighbours and the whole country, so Ali Smith draws us into a beautiful, strange place where everyone is so much more than they first appear...

*****

'Adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read' Literary Review

'Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most exciting writers today' Daily Telegraph

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

A richly inventive collection of stories about our enduring love of books from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet

'Smith is dazzling in her daring. Sheer inventive power' Observer

Why are books so powerful?
What do the books we read make of us?
And what does the vanishing of public libraries say about us?

These stories are about what we do with books and what they do with us: how they travel with us; how they shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once; how they remind us to pay attention to the world we make.

Public libraries are places of joy, freedom, community and discovery - and they are under threat from funding cuts and widespread closures across the UK and further afield. With this brilliantly inventive collection, Ali Smith raises her voice in defence of our public libraries, celebrating their essential place in our culture and history.

*****

'Ali Smith is a one-off. Her imagination and originality make her one of the most exciting novelists of her generation' Daily Express

'In Ali Smith we have a writer whose dazzling sophistication will surely be celebrated, studied and argues over hundreds of years after we're gone' Scotsman

'Smith's world is incredibly generous - it's a place where all sorts of stories and human connections are possible' Metro

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