Summer
ALI SMITH
(HAMISH HAMILTON, 400 PP, £16.99)
Tablet bookshop price £15.29 • Tel 020 7799 4064
In an ever-accelerating world (at least until Covid), fast fiction remains a perplexing phenomenon. It’s a jolt to see this handsome hardback contains references, albeit fleeting, to Dominic Cummings and George Floyd. Ali Smith is such a welcoming writer that Summer can be read as a standalone novel, but it’s also the culmination of her seasonal quartet, which began with Autumn, her rapid response to the Brexit vote. As characters and references flit from book to book, it’s a richer experience for knowing the previous volumes.
