"You say, the times are troublesome, the times are burdensome, the times are miserable. Live rightly and you will change the times. The times have never hurt anyone. Those who are hurt are human beings; those by whom they are hurt are also human beings. So, change human beings and the times will be changed."—St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 311, 8Growing up on the northernmost edge of the African continent, young Augustine had never known a l...

**Brought to you by Penguin.SUNDAY TIMES** TOP TEN BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2017A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now.Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.Love ...

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, and how we live now.**'A maestra's portrait of her age . . . remarkable' GuardianIn the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are havi...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERThe unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartetOne day in post-Brexit, mid-pandemic Britain, artist Sandy Gray receives an unexpected phone call from university acquaintance Martina Pelf. Martina is calling Sandy to ask for help with a mysterious question she's been left with after she's spent half a day locked in a room by border control officials for no reas...

WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2026SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZE 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2024‘Miraculous . . . tender, hilarious and ultimately uplifting. A ray of hope’ Paul Murray, Irish TimesOnce 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 ...

A playful, form-bending novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet'Playful and audacious' IndependentNarrated by a character who is haunted - literally - by a former lover, Artful slips slyly between fiction and essay, guiding the reader thrillingly through a sequence of ideas on art and literature. With Smi...

A vitally alive and ever-surprising collection of stories from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet'Bold and sensitive. Smith's prose is a joy' IndependentIndividually lucid and luminous, these tales resonate subtly together.In examining the distances and connections between ourselves and others, expertly inching us closer to the ...

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2015WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2014WINNER OF THE 2014 COSTA NOVEL AWARD'I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul' Evening StandardHow to be both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation ...

Brought to you by Penguin.The unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet'A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.'Here we are in extraordinary times.Is this history?What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other?What have we lost?What stays with us?What does it take to unlock our future?

"The crow crossed the sky, slow-beating her wings. Beat, beat, beat. It was night, not yet morning, and her feathers were so black that she coasted the air invisible above the city wall."Thus begins Ali Smith's retelling of Sophocles' tragedy, about a young Theban princess who decides to bury her dishonoured brother Polynices, against King Creon's express orders with heart-breaking consequences.

From the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet'Artful is a revelation; a new kind of book altogether . . . it could have only been written by Ali Smith. An intimate study of grief that makes you glad to be alive' Jackie Kay'Playful and audacious' Independent'Powerful and moving' London Revie...

'Playful, bold, tender . . . in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day' GuardianGhosts don't exist.They don't. End of.Story, however.It is haunting.Everything tells it.It all starts when Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost.Is it imaginary? Is it...