From the award-winning author of Hotel World and The Accidental, a dazzling, funny, and wonderfully exhilarating new novel.
At a dinner party in the posh London suburb of Greenwich, Miles Garth suddenly leaves the table midway through the meal, locks himself in an upstairs room, and refuses to leave. An eclectic group of neighbors and friends slowly gathers around the house, and Miles's story is told from the points of view of four of them: Anna, a woman in her forties; Mark, a man in his sixties; May, a woman in her eighties; and a ten-year-old named Brooke. The thing is, none of these people knows Miles more than slightly. How much is it possible for us to know about a stranger? And what are the consequences of even the most casual, fleeting moments we share every day with one another?
Brilliantly audacious, disarmingly playful, and full of Smith's trademark wit and puns,There but for the is a deft exploration of the human need for separation-from our pasts and from one another-and the redemptive possibilities for connection. It is a tour de force by one of our finest writers.
Industry Reviews
A "Washington Post" Notable Book of 2011
A "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of 2011
""There but for the "is a brilliant title for a brilliant novel. Ali Smith invents new forms of fiction in the interstices between parts of a sentence - commenting "but the thing I particularly like about the word but ... is that it always takes you off to the side ..." The story is about a man who leaves a tedious dinner party, locks himself into a bedroom and refuses to leave. His hostess calls in the press and he becomes a cause celebre. He is put together in a series of stories from different, tangential points of view. The novel is both funny and moving - it succeeds because of Smith's extraordinary skill with ordinary language." -A.S. Byatt, "The Guardian" (London), Best Books of 2011
"To read a book by Ali Smith is to become an unabashed fan of her clever wordplay, her inventive prose, her concern for the ethical collapse of the lives of ordinary people. . . . As wickedly ingenious a novel as is likely to be found this season. . . . Exhilarating. . . . At a time when technology is separating us, changing our language and our histories, we must listen to Ali Smith. We must heed her cautionary comments on the human need to be individuals and the human need for connection. Otherwise, There but for the." -"Anniston Star"
"Ali Smith's clever, by turns whimsical and subtly wrenching fifth novel, There But For The, is another book that sends you back to the beginning once you've reached the end, both to connect the dots of her intricately structured story and to marvel at what she has pulled off. . . . With her penchant for wordplay on full display, the author of The Accidental switches between the perspectives of four people whose lives have been peripherally touched by her gentle shut-in, a man who, like J.D. Salinger's Seymour Glass, has perhaps too much heart to survive comfortably in a hard world. These appealing characters include a 'preternaturally artic
