“Time is nothing,” says one character’s father. In the warm season, she is a minor character in someone else’s story, appearing much as the mythological figure of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, does-briefly, as her summer intersects with others’ summers-to demonstrate one of the larger points of the quartet: the world is itself the invention or, perhaps, intervention of our provisional selves experiencing, just as provisionally, the passing of the seasons. “Nothing’s not connected,” states Iris, a character the reader meets in Winter, and who returns, improbably, in Summer, the same and not the same, changed in the interval. Nothing exists on its own terms, or, if it does, the terms are always temporal and framed by the intersection of multiple pasts-ecological, historical, and personal-and multiple selves. Everything is relational and therefore relative. It will serve as a time-capsule which will prove to be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the mood of Britain during this turbulent time.In Summer, the last installment of Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet, the world is revealed to be the function and result of interdependence. Capturing a snapshot of life in Britain right up until the present day, Smith takes the emotional temperature of a nation grappling with a global pandemic, the brink of Brexit, heart-breaking conditions for refugees, and so much more. The conclusion to Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet seals her reputation as the great chronicler of our age. Smith, accepting her prize in a speech next to the mural of Orwell at Southwold Pier in Suffolk, sent this message: Autumn was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and Winter was shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Books in 2018. How to be both won the Bailey’s Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize.

Hotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize.

She is the author of Spring, Winter, Autumn, Public library and other stories, How to be both, Shire, Artful, There but for the, The first person and other stories, Girl Meets Boy, The Accidental, The whole story and other stories, Hotel World, Other stories and other stories, Like and Free Love.

Summer by ali smith