Book description
Ali Smith, twice shortlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange
Prizes, is back with the sparkling There but for the...
'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 at first appear.
There but for the has been hailed as one of the best books of
2011 by Jeanette Winterson, A. S. Byatt, Patrick Ness, Sebastian
Barry, Boyd Tonkin, Erica Wagner and Nick Barley.
'Dazzlingly inventive' A. S. Byatt
'Whimsically devastating. Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly
clever and profoundly affecting' Guardian
'A real gem' Erica Wagner, The Times
'Eccentric, adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel
with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read' Literary Review
'If you liked Smith's earlier fiction, you will know that she enjoys
setting up a situation before chucking in a literary Molotov cocktail
then describing what happens' Sunday Express
'Wonderful, word-playful, compelling' Jeanette Winterson
'Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most
exciting writers today' Daily Telegraph
'I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul'
Evening Standard
Ali Smith is the author of novels Girl Meets Boy, Like
and the bestsellers The Accidental and Hotel World. She
has published the short story collections The First Person and
Other Stories,
Free Love and Other Stories, Other Stories and Other
Stories and The Whole Story and Other Stories. She has been
twice-shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, twice nominated for the
Orange Prize and won the Whitbread Novel of the Year in 2005.
Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962 and lives in Cambridge. She
is the author of
Free Love
,
Like
,
Hotel World
,
Other Stories and Other Stories
,
The Whole Story and Other Stories
,
The Accidental
,
Girl Meets Boy
and
The First Person and Other Stories
.
