Summer: Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021

SUMMER is the best book I’ve read in a long, long time. I read the Season Quartet, four beautiful books, but SUMMER spoke directly to my heart in such dificult times. I read it twice without pause and I think that Ali Smith’s poetic prose will resonate in me for a long time.

Ultimo romanzo di Ali Smith legata alle stagioni. Chi ha letto i romanzi precedenti troverà personaggi e situazioni già conosciuti, tuttavia anche chi non li ha letti può apprezzare questo lavoro, in cui si trovano temi cari all’autrice inglese come lo stato della nazione (UK) post brexit insieme a un riferimento di stringente attualità alla cattiva gestione della pandemia nel Regno Unito. Con una nota di speranza alla fine.

This is the brilliant culmination of Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet. It is probably the best stand alone novel of the four. But it is also great because it 'stands on the shoulders of giants', the other three previous novels. It is a multi viewpoint narrative, which merges history and the present, to excellent and poignant effect.

Op aanraden van Sander Kollaert kocht ik het 1e deel van deze serie van Ali Smit, een mij onbekende schrijfster. De boeken zijn alle vier prachtig eloquent geschreven en zeer verrassend wat verhaallijn betreft. Een grote vreugde om te lezen.

Final book in the quartet brings the stories together. Thought-provoking and memorable. My favourite two characters from “Autumn” re-appear and the back story emerges in a way that is elegaic and immediate. Smith deals with heavy issues but in a subtle way. She writes like a poet at times. Her political concerns are fairly visible but not to the detriment of the human story. At the end one wonders how she could pack so many stories into such a short space, as there is enough material for 500 pages but it is over in about 200.