the accidental

The Accidental is the dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family's summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts--parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid--encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light. Smith's exhilarating facility with language, her narrative freedom, her chromatic wordplay propel the novel to its startling, wonderfully enigmatic conclusion.

Ali Smith's acclaimed novel not only won the prestigious Whitbread Award but was also a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

(back cover)