Summer cover art

Summer

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Summer

By: Ali Smith
Narrated by: Juliette Burton
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About this listen

Nominated for the Orwell Prize.

The unmissable finale to Ali Smith's dazzling literary tour de force: the Seasonal quartet concludes in 2020 with Summer.

In the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother, Robert, just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time.

This is a story about people on the brink of change. They're family, but they think they're strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common?

©2020 Ali Smith (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Political
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I have read all four books Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer in the order they were published. Impressive and instructive is the lightness with which the author writes about historical and contemporary responses to issues of political and social injustice. Ali Smith uses story, sometimes just small fragments to underline how we are all connected, each being part of the whole, and the power of presence to bring out the best that we can be.
Each book gives a lens through which to see what is really going on. I was reminded of the small boy in Hans Christian Anderson’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes.
After finishing Summer I listened to all four books again and got so much more from my re read. It is not something I have done before. The writing is rich and multi layered. It seems to come from a deep concern and love for our world and all its beings.
I so enjoyed Juliette Burton’s narration as I did the narrator of Autumn and Winter, Melody Grove.
I warmly recommend Summer along with the other books in this quartet.

A Book for our times

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