The Accidental

Author : Smith, Ali


18 AED

The Accidental is Ali Smiths dazzling novel about a family holiday and a stranger who upends it. Arresting and wonderful The Accidental pans in on the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family one hot summer. There a beguiling stranger called Amber appears at the door bearing all sorts of unexpected gifts trampling over family boundaries and sending each of the Smarts scurrying from the dark into the light. A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves The Accidental explores the nature of truth the role of fate and the power of storytelling. A beguiling page-turner. . . a brilliant creation. To read The Accidental is to be excited from first to last Independent Joyous a shot across the bows. . . writing as rapture as giddy delight The Times Brilliant and engaging frequently hilarious. . . Smith makes one look at the world afresh Sunday Telegraph Review: Before writing The Accidental Ali Smith wrote Hotel World shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize and several short story collections. Her work is absolutely original with a trademark quirky style with whole passages that seem to have been bound into the wrong book and occasional historical asides completely outside the narrative line. Dont be fooled; with Smith every word has a purpose. Amber is the catalyst who makes the novel happen. She appears on the doorstep of the Smarts rented summer cottage in Norfolk England barefoot and unexpected. Eve Smart a third-rate author suffering writers block believes that she is a friend of her husbands. Michael is a womanizing University professor but he doesnt usually drag his quarry home. He thinks that she must be a friend of Eves. Everyone is politely confused and Amber is invited to dinner. She is a consummate liar and manipulator who manages to seduce everyone in the family in some significant way. Magnus Eves 17-year-old son from a former marriage and Astrid her 12-year-old daughter are easy prey. Magnus is in despair. He played a prank on a classmate and it went horribly wrong when she killed herself because of the humiliation it caused. He cannot shake the guilt and is about to hang himself from the shower rod when Amber walks into the bathroom the perfect deus ex machina. She bathes him and takes him back downstairs announcing that she found him trying to kill himself. Everyone titters. Could it be possible? This is a recurring question as Ambers behavior becomes more and more outrageous. Is this really happening or is it some family-wide delusion? To add to the mystery there is a Rashomon-like character to the story in that the same events are recalled by the Smarts through their own filters. This is a completely engrossing novel that raises as many questions as it answers. --Valerie Ryan About this title may belong to another edition of this title.


The Accidental is Ali Smiths dazzling novel about a family holiday and a stranger who upends it. Arresting and wonderful The Accidental pans in on the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family one hot summer. There a beguiling stranger called Amber appears at the door bearing all sorts of unexpected gifts trampling over family boundaries and sending each of the Smarts scurrying from the dark into the light. A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves The Accidental explores the nature of truth the role of fate and the power of storytelling. A beguiling page-turner. . . a brilliant creation. To read The Accidental is to be excited from first to last Independent Joyous a shot across the bows. . . writing as rapture as giddy delight The Times Brilliant and engaging frequently hilarious. . . Smith makes one look at the world afresh Sunday Telegraph Review: Before writing The Accidental Ali Smith wrote Hotel World shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize and several short story collections. Her work is absolutely original with a trademark quirky style with whole passages that seem to have been bound into the wrong book and occasional historical asides completely outside the narrative line. Dont be fooled; with Smith every word has a purpose. Amber is the catalyst who makes the novel happen. She appears on the doorstep of the Smarts rented summer cottage in Norfolk England barefoot and unexpected. Eve Smart a third-rate author suffering writers block believes that she is a friend of her husbands. Michael is a womanizing University professor but he doesnt usually drag his quarry home. He thinks that she must be a friend of Eves. Everyone is politely confused and Amber is invited to dinner. She is a consummate liar and manipulator who manages to seduce everyone in the family in some significant way. Magnus Eves 17-year-old son from a former marriage and Astrid her 12-year-old daughter are easy prey. Magnus is in despair. He played a prank on a classmate and it went horribly wrong when she killed herself because of the humiliation it caused. He cannot shake the guilt and is about to hang himself from the shower rod when Amber walks into the bathroom the perfect deus ex machina. She bathes him and takes him back downstairs announcing that she found him trying to kill himself. Everyone titters. Could it be possible? This is a recurring question as Ambers behavior becomes more and more outrageous. Is this really happening or is it some family-wide delusion? To add to the mystery there is a Rashomon-like character to the story in that the same events are recalled by the Smarts through their own filters. This is a completely engrossing novel that raises as many questions as it answers. --Valerie Ryan About this title may belong to another edition of this title.
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