Summer
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021
Published on 6. August 2020
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-241-20706-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
*****
'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
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.
*****
'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
Reviews / Votes
An astonishing finale to a prescient series . . . Ali Smith brilliantly weaves strands of joy and celebration to end her Seasonal Quartet * Evening Standard * The first great coronavirus novel - a book to savour, a literary tour de force that captures the nation's psyche exquisitely * Evening Standard * This singular writer has found her moment * Prospect * A maestra's portrait of her age. . . remarkable * Guardian * Few writers today can make a more compelling claim to singularity of innovation and sustained brilliance * TLS * The bravura performance of a writer, poised at the edge of the day's vast darkness, gathering all the warmth and light of our inner summer * The Washington Post * Smith bring[s] this brilliant quartet to a satisfying close * NPR * The final flourish of a mazy and beautiful quartet * Telegraph * Sublime * The Boston Globe * Brilliant * The Scotsman *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 223 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-20706-2 (9780241207062)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2020
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the author of several novels and short story collections including, The Accidental, Hotel World, How to Be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women's Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.