Stephanie Sy-Quia

A toast to brotherhood: Summer, by Ali Smith, reviewed

Smith concludes her seasonal quartet with an ode to the courage of living a life of common decency

Ali Smith. Credit: Alamy

The concluding novel of Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet is a family affair. Her intergenerational group of seeming strangers from the past three novels find themselves flung together at the eroding eastern edge of England. Daniel Gluck, our centenarian from Autumn, now 104, has been moved out of his care home (thank God, given that we know what’s coming — this is February 2020) and into Elisabeth’s mother’s house in Suffolk.

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