61ZKQxuuASL._SL500_About the Book: “A breathtakingly inventive new novel from the Man Booker-shortlisted and Baileys Prize-winning author of How to be Both.
Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy and the colour-hit of Pop Art—via a bit of very contemporary skulduggery and skull-diggery—Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture, and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means.
Autumn is the first instalment in Ali Smith’s novel quartet Seasonal: four standalone books, separate yet interconnected and cyclical (as the seasons are), exploring what time is, how we experience it, and the recurring markers in the shapes our lives take and in our ways with narrative.
From the imagination of the peerless Ali Smith comes a shape-shifting series, wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories, and a story about ageing and time and love and stories themselves.“

My Review

Well this was a very different listen for me, but a very good one!

I started listening to this because I was looking for my final book for the What’s In A Name? Challenge, for the Season category. Well I had a look on Scribd and this came up, along with two other books in this quartet.

I haven’t read or listened to anything by Ali Smith before, so really didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t at all sure what I was listening to in the beginning, as it was really weird, like someone was on LSD or something. 😵 Then I read a review on audible, and understood what was happening and it all made perfect sense.

Basically the story is all about the relationship between Elisabeth and her neighbour Daniel Gluck through the decades, but it’s not told in chronological order. At the opening of the book Mr Gluck is asleep in a nursing home, he’s dying and he’s having very vivid dreams.  I loved Elisabeth and Daniel, their friendship was lovely, especially as Elisabeth and her mother didn’t get on at all.

The book was written around the time of the Brexit referendum and that features heavily throughout, although Brexit isn’t actually mentioned, just a referendum. I loved this aspect of the book, as six years later the UK is still reeling from that catastrophic decision!

As I mentioned above this was a very different sort of listen for me. I don’t normally go anywhere near Booker Prize Longlisted books or literary fiction, but I loved this and will definitely be listening to the rest of the quartet.

Melody Grove’s narration was amazing! She portrayed all the characters perfectly and captured the spirit of the book superbly! I’m definitely adding her to my favourite narrators list!

Highly recommended, especially on audio!

Book 15/20

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