The Accidental - Softcover

Smith, Ali

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141010398 ISBN 13: 9780141010397

Publisher: Penguin, 2006

Synopsis

From the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted, Baileys Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet

'Brilliant and engaging, frequently hilarious. . . Smith makes one look at the world afresh' Sunday Telegraph

'A beguiling page-turner... To read The Accidental is to be excited from first to last' Independent

'Joyous' The Times

The Accidental pans in on the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family one hot summer. There a beguiling stranger called Amber appears at the door bearing all sorts of unexpected gifts, trampling over family boundaries and sending each of the Smarts scurrying from the dark into the light.

A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves, The Accidental explores the nature of truth, the role of fate and the power of storytelling.

About this title

Review:

"Astonishing. . . . Vivid and affecting. . . . Wonderfully supple, jazzy." -"The New York Times" "Persistently sparkling pages...of startling and clarifying emotional power. . . . It casts a spell." --"The Atlantic Monthly" "Completely captivating. . . . Thoroughly charming and melodic. . . .Devilishly lovely." --"The Boston Globe" "Beautifully executed. . . . A few pages [in] and you begin to remember how much fun it is to put yourself in the hands of a skilled, majestically confident writer. . . . Delightful." --"The New York Observer" "Brims with wit, humor, and energy." --"The Christian Science Monitor" " Astonishing. . . . Vivid and affecting. . . . Wonderfully supple, jazzy." - "The New York Times" " Persistently sparkling pages...of startling and clarifying emotional power. . . . It casts a spell." -- "The Atlantic Monthly" " Completely captivating. . . . Thoroughly charming and melodic. . . .Devilishly lovely." -- "The Boston Globe" " Beautifully executed. . . . A few pages [in] and you begin to remember how much fun it is to put yourself in the hands of a skilled, majestically confident writer. . . . Delightful." -- "The New York Observer" " Brims with wit, humor, and energy." -- "The Christian Science Monitor" from the United Kingdom: "An outstanding novel . . . Exuberantly inventive . . . Beautifully formed and astringently intelligent . . . It is as good as anyone who has been watching the progress of this talented author could possibly have hoped." -"The Sunday Times" "Funny, sexy, poignant, surprising, playful . . . Although the novel dazzles with the richness of language and ideas, it retains a delicious lightness." -"The Observer" "Spectacular . . . Allusive, ambitious and formally acrobatic . . . Original, restless, formally and morally challenging, [Ali Smith] remains a writer who resists definition." -"The Times Literary Supplement" "Amazing . . . Dazzling . . . Smith is one of our greatest imaginative writers." -"The Scotsman" "Joyous . . . Smith plays dizzying games with her story and language; she bends and buckles her prose, breathes fire into it, lets it cool, swirls it up in unimaginable shapes. This is writing as pure rapture, as giddy delight." -"The Times" "From the Hardcover edition."

Synopsis:

The Smart family's lacklustre holiday in Norwich is turned upside down when a beguiling stranger called Amber appears, bringing with her love, joy, pain and upheaval. The Smarts try to make sense of their bewildering emotions as Amber tramples over family boundaries and forces them to think about their world and themselves in an entirely new way. "The Accidental" is at once a mysterious web of secret identities and a ruthlessly honest look at the silent cracks that can develop unnoticed in relationships over time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0141010398
• ISBN 13: 9780141010397
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 305