Smith, Ali The Accidental: A novel ISBN 13: 9780375422256

The Accidental: A novel - Hardcover

9780375422256: The Accidental: A novel
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Winner of the Whitbread Award for best novel and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, The Accidental is the virtuoso new novel by the singularly gifted Ali Smith. Jonathan Safran Foer has called her writing “thrilling.” Jeanette Winterson has praised her for her “style, ideas, and punch.” Here, in a novel at once profound, playful, and exhilaratingly inventive, she transfixes us with a portrait of a family unraveled by a mysterious visitor.

Amber—thirtysomething and barefoot—shows up at the door of the Norfolk cottage that the Smarts are renting for the summer. She talks her way in. She tells nothing but lies. She stays for dinner.

Eve Smart, the author of a best-selling series of biographical reconstructions, thinks Amber is a student with whom her husband, Michael, is sleeping. Michael, an English professor, knows only that her car broke down. Daughter Astrid, age twelve, thinks she’s her mother’s friend. Son Magnus, age seventeen, thinks she’s an angel.

As Amber insinuates herself into the family, the questions of who she is and how she’s come to be there drop away. Instead, dazzled by her seeming exoticism, the Smarts begin to examine the accidents of their lives through the searing lens of Amber’s perceptions. When Eve finally banishes her from the cottage, Amber disappears from their sight, but not—they discover when they return home to London—from their profoundly altered lives.

Fearlessly intelligent and written with an irresistible blend of lyricism and whimsy, The Accidental is a tour de force of literary improvisation that explores the nature of truth, the role of chance, and the transformative power of storytelling.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

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. Don't 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 Smart's rented summer cottage in Norfolk, England, barefoot and unexpected. Eve Smart, a third-rate author suffering writer's block, believes that she is a friend of her husband's. Michael is a womanizing University professor, but he doesn't usually drag his quarry home. He thinks that she must be a friend of Eve's. 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, Eve's 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 Amber's 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 the Author:
Ali Smith is the author of six works of fiction, including the novel Hotel World, which was short–listed for both the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize in 2001 and won the Encore Award and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award in 2002. Her story collections include Free Love, which won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Award, and The Whole Story and Other Stories. Born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1962, Smith now lives in Cambridge, England.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPantheon
  • Publication date2006
  • ISBN 10 0375422250
  • ISBN 13 9780375422256
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages320
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780141010397: Accidental

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780141010397
Publisher: Penguin UK, 2006
Softcover

9781400032181: The Accidental

Anchor, 2007
Softcover

9780241141908: The Accidental

Panthe..., 2005
Hardcover

9780241989111: The Accidental

Penguin, 2020
Softcover

9780241146774: The Accidental (UK 1st impression SIGNED)

Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Jaros
(Pleasant Grove, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 53IN3G002MZ3

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.79
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0375422250-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 28.15
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0375422250-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 28.16
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0375422250

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 24.19
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0375422250

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 28.19
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Margins13 Books
(Redmond, WA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. STATED FIRST American Edition AND Printing, with full publishers number line in place. A MINT volume in same condition UNclipped Dust Jacket. This title was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and The Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Clean, tight, NO markings. A FIRST/FIRST. Mylar protected jacket. Seller Inventory # 004513

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 35.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Smith, Ali
Published by Pantheon (2006)
ISBN 10: 0375422250 ISBN 13: 9780375422256
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.13. Seller Inventory # Q-0375422250

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 57.84
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.97
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds