Promotional Information

A warm, joyful novel that fizzes with humanity and love of language - by the bestselling author of The Accidental

About the Author

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the author of Free Love and Other Stories, Like, Other Stories and Other Stories, Hotel World, The Whole Story and Other Stories, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy, The First Person and Other Stories, There but for the, Artful, How to be both, and Public library and other stories. Hotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize and The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Orange Prize. How to be both won the Baileys Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Folio Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge and her next novel is forthcoming in 2016.

Reviews

Whimsically devastating. Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly clever and profoundly affecting
*Guardian*

Remarkable. A brilliant novel: funny, serious, always surprising, always true
*The Times*

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

A playfully serious or seriously playful novel full of wit and pleasure. Wonderful
*Observer*

Eccentric, adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read. The writing dances along
*Literary Review*

Poignant, empathetic, funny. A book full of kindness and compassion
*Time Out*

Fizzying, affectionate, sparkling. Smith presents her world view in words as fresh as lemons. A joyful read
*Herald*

A tour de force
*Financial Times*

A virtuoso piece of writing, both funny and gripping . . . Smith is a writer with a rich array of conventional strengths
*Times Literary Supplement*

A must read
*Toronto NOW*

In the middle of an English dinner party, Miles Garth excuses himself from the table, locks himself in the guest room, and refuses to leave. As the weeks and then months drag on, hostess Gen-portrayed by narrator Anne Flosnik as an afflicted damsel in distress-goes through Miles's address book to enlist friends, however remote, to coax the unwanted boarder out of his lair. The first rescue attempt is made by Anna-who met Miles decades earlier on a school trip-whom Flosnik deftly renders as a classy and good-natured Glaswegian, perplexed that Miles even remembered her. After Anna, Flosnik's performance declines: Mark-who met Miles in a theater-sounds much like the audio's other men, while the voice given to Brooke, the 10-year-old who makes a final attempt at extricating Miles, is too similar to those of the book's other children-all of them bright and high-pitched. Flosnik's narration is, however, well paced and entertaining, and this-coupled with Smith's playful language, rhymes, songs, and imaginative plot-will enchant listeners. A Pantheon hardcover. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.