Daniel, now 101 years old, has lapsed into a coma in a nearby care facility and Elisabeth visits him under the pretence of being his granddaughter. The story weaves together several threads: Elisabeth Demand, a junior art history lecturer in London, has returned to her mother’s house in the wake of the vote to visit Daniel Gluck, an elderly neighbor who used to act as a makeshift babysitter for her often absent single mother. Published in October in the UK and early February in North America, its primary narrative thread is set in post-Brexit Britain, autumn 2016. Smith knows that “whoever makes up the story makes up the world,” and advises us to “always try to welcome people into the home of your story.” This advice, which is one of Autumn’s foremost concerns, is lived out in every home she builds.Īs the first installment in a four-part novel cycle named for each season, Autumn is defiantly contemporary. Yet the familiar places of her novels never come across as worn or tired because they welcome such a diversity of characters. Underneath the new window coverings and re-arranged furniture are the same authorial concerns: time, art, and storytelling. Autumn, her most recent novel, is no exception, and it’s homier than ever. And then there is her undeniable voice that agitates and soothes in the same stroke, unbearably light and effortlessly heavy.

She always uses a single word - “past,” “beginning,” “I,” “there,” “one,” “1” - to open the first section of every one of her novels, a gentle reminder that every story is the bringing together of disparate parts.

There is the usual smattering of quotes that mark the opening of each work, laid out like a welcome mat at the door. Reading a new Ali Smith novel always feels like returning to a familiar place.

Billed Into Silence: Money and the Miseducation of Women.

Autumn smith novel