Gliff
From the award-winning author of the groundbreaking Seasonal Quartet
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
‘Miraculous . . . tender, hilarious and ultimately uplifting. A ray of hope’ Paul Murray, Irish Times
Once upon a time, not very far from now, two children come home to find a line of wet red paint round the outside of their house . . .
So begins the freewheeling and urgent new novel from Ali Smith – the story of two young people and a horse called Gliff, on the run from history as it takes a turn for the worse.
‘A voice that moves with lightness and precision, where bravery and goodness triumph in spirit over jeopardy and fear’ Financial Times
‘One of Smith’s most propulsive stories – a dark adventure with high stakes, which is still a sparklingly crisp read. A new Ali Smith book is always an event’ Holly Williams, i
‘Ali Smith’s marvellous Gliff considers the complexities of our present moment and the thorny, bridling potential of possible futures with wit, care and craft. A masterpiece of storytelling about storytelling, exploring the delighting, dangerous power of language and connectivity’ Eley Williams
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZE 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2024
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Ali Smith’s writing is always inventive and intelligent, and Gliff is no different. Set in a near-future dystopia, the story follows two siblings who are separated from their mother and making their own way together in a hostile landscape—before their paths dramatically diverge. In the world of Gliff, the data collected on a person defines their role in society. Those without data have their rights stripped away. New ways of being and new forms of resistance are needed. The siblings save a horse from slaughter and the animal, named Gliff, becomes a symbol of hope and the power of the natural world. The novel explores how we create identity and meaning, both for ourselves and those around us. Four previous works by Smith, Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, formed the interlinked Seasonal Quartet and, similarly, Gliff has a counterpart in the upcoming Glyph. The second novel will be published in 2025.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smith (How to Be Both) delivers an ingenious speculative novel in which two children come to terms with the mysteries of their unnamed country, which carries a whiff of post-Brexit England. The narrator, a 16-year-old boy named Brice, accompanies his younger sister, Rose, to see off their mother after she's forced to leave for work in a far-off city. Upon returning to their house, the siblings find it encircled with a red line. As the story progresses, it becomes clear their mother is a whistleblower who has exposed the wrongdoings of a weed-killer conglomerate, and that critics of this society, deemed "unverifiables," are subject to repressive measures with frightening Orwellian echoes. Out wandering one day, Rose comes upon a field with seven "beautiful and mangy" horses including Gliff, a gray horse who becomes a symbol of natural beauty and freedom for the siblings. Smith makes the most of her protagonists' youthful perspectives to bring a sense of wonder, inquisitiveness, and pathos to the story, which sees Rose and Brice link up with a motley crew of other kids also deemed unverifiables. As in the author's Seasonal Quartet series, the lush narrative doubles as an anthem of resistance, in this case against tyranny and the destruction of the environment. Inspired references to Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf add to Smith's literary tapestry. The results are extraordinary.
