Ali Smith

The unmissable finale to Ali Smith's dazzling literary tour de force: the Seasonal quartet concludes in 2020 with Summer0.

Summer

From the Man Booker short-listed author of Autumn, Winter, and Spring comes Summer, the highly anticipated fourth novel in her acclaimed Seasonal Quartet. Here is the exciting culmination of Ali Smith's celebrated Seasonal Quartet, a series of stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected (as the seasons are), wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories.

Ryan Mateyk

"There is more summer to come and there will be more weeks of your bird in my sky."

Quite honestly there's no other possible rating for this book (and series). Whether they just haven't been written yet, or they will never exist, I don't think there are any books that will better reflect the general feeling of the last few years of our lifetimes, some of the darkest years in recent memory. Despite the darkness in reality, these novels consistently shine light and bring hope. 

I am a plebe and don't know how to classify this novel (experimental? lol) but it's just the most emotional reading experience. These characters are full of youth, and they're so real. Towards the end of the book, while the revoluti-lite Charlotte is speaking with Art, there is a conversation that is just so... human, I had to read it a couple times over. And the letter that closes this book, the final three pages, seriously made me cry, because it so simply showed the beauty of humanity. I found the smallest things, literally at times a handful of words, had the most impact. Two of the main characters in this book are siblings, a boy aged 13 and a girl aged 16. The boy makes a stupid joke, the girl laughs out loud, and so simply, Ali Smith says: "One of the best things ever, to be able to make your sister laugh like that."... my god (yes, lowercase g, we're pagan), that put a smile on my face! Maybe you just need to be into the book but she really has a knack for pulling out emotions in the reader. 

Fiction is often treated as an escape from the real world, but this quartet zeroes in on exactly what is plaguing the planet (br*xit, tr*mp, bor*s johns*n, miss r*na, etc.) and somehow... leaves us feeling okay about everything. I don't often revisit my *~favourites~* shelf but Ali Smith has officially earned her place and I need to buy all these books so I can re-read ad infinitum.

Discover the unforgettable finale to Ali Smith's dazzling literary tour-de-force In the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time. This is a story about people on the brink of change. They're family, but they think they're strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common? Summer. 'Smith's seasonal quartet of novels is a bold and brilliant experiment' Independent 'The novel's hopeful message about the healing power of friendship ensures the quartet ends on a feel-good note' Sunday Times

3.5 ✫

ali smith's quartet continues to be an excellent reflection of the current state of britain; however, this feels somewhat like a let down after the absolutely fantastic 'spring'.

i could not escape the impression that 'summer' was a little too intended on bringing (or more appropriately - tying) the cast of the quartet together. it also seemed too keen on including the pandemic, during which it would have been finished to be written, into the novel itself. the combination of the both makes the novel feel meandering and somehow less cohesive than the previous instalments.

the issue of the inclusion of covid-19 is that it is discernibly clumsier than the better thought-out sections of the novel. while it is true that 'autumn' was written very shortly after the brexit referendum (the referendum happened at the end of june 2016, while 'autumn' was published at the end of october 2016), it had the benefit of focusing on a single event to which much build-up had been had. (i am sure a lot of british were surprised at the enormous stupidity of it but anyone who had lived in the times immediately before it, would have known it was going to happen. but maybe that is just my eu immigrant perspective).

covid-19, in comparison, had to be included in the last novel of a quartet with already established themes and topics; i would also assume that the fourth novel had already been planned to a degree prior to the start of the pandemic. in addition, the circumstances during 2020 continued to change day by day and what was unpredictable was not the incompetence of our leaders but rather the virus itself which kept pushing us in directions we had never imagined we would go.

the pandemic is such a momentous continuous event that even if ali smith had been writing and editing until a week before the book's release (end of august 2020), the five months since the start of the first lockdown in the uk would have never been enough to truly internalise the event. after all, dominic cummings had barely just driven 40miles while in self-isolation (not at home) to "check his eyesight" and little did we know about no.10 becoming party city - imagine the fun a political novel could have with this.

and while i cannot blame smith for deciding to include it - after all, who among our contemporary writers did not publish a book about the pandemic in the second half of 2020? - i do believe it weakens a book that has a lot of strong ideas in it already.

and there is a lot to be liked and discussed among those ideas that were fully fleshed out. for example, the record the novel offers of the wwi and wwii british internment camps (especially following 'spring' with its focus on british refugee detention centres) is important in the context of a country that has built its "post-imperial" (quotations as there is nothing post-imperial about the uk but perhaps the name) identity around defeating nazi germany; a country that also wrapped its response to the pandemic in a war language. the representation of this was excellently done; it felt well thought-out and researched, poignant and so vital for the quartet.

the radicalisation of the young robert, at 13 years old, in his desire to fit in and protect himself was also a very acute representation of the current trends among young men. this process is a key component of the politics we are seeing at the forefront of the current cultural landscape and which - unfortunately but hopefully not - might end up being a bigger challenge than we are prepared to face. my only critique here is that i do wish it had been expanded on further, even though its depiction in the novel, i am sure, will startle any parent.

(if i am not mixing the years in my mind, i distinctly remember reading a journalistic piece of similar nature around the time 'summer' was released; i am convinced i was reading it while also browsing in my local waterstones and i think i saw either 'spring' or 'summer' just having been released; maybe it was when the paperback of 'summer' was released? quite a fateful coincidence if i am not entirely misremembering it, of course).

i hope it does not seem to anyone that the novel was bad - it was good, i am giving it nearly 4/5 stars after all. i just wish it had ended with more precision.

I wavered with this one as well. Smith won me over in the end, since it seems to be the first book featuring the pandemic and the timeliness of it really struck a cord with me. Otherwise, while I appreciated how all of the characters returned and how everything intertwined like in previous books, I felt myself drifting. I really disliked following the children's perspectives. I also thought some of the characters were written smartly just to quote things at the reader, and it really got old fast.

Anika | @chaptersofmay

Summer is a thoughtful novel that captures the social and political disturbances of 2020. Smith’s sharp and snappy writing style draws parallels from history to the current climate in this reflective finale to the Seasons book quartet. 

The ground covered in this book is expansive, and the reading experience feels a lot like exploring a time capsule. It addresses the catastrophes, lockdowns, and climates that have plagued the world over the past year and more. But the focus doesn’t remain on disaster, it highlights the strengths in humanity and is written with the kind of hopeful tone that inspires and motivates. 

This is my first Smith book, and her tone of voice is simply marvellous. There’s no rush to her writing as she insightfully breaks down the many facets of society today. While I like the characters she constructed to tell the story, the message beneath appealed to me much more. 

I love that Summer can be read as a standalone, but definitely feel reading the other three books first will contribute to reading this final instalment. Still, this book is impressively clever, so I look forward to catching up with the rest of the series.

Gareth Kay

A fantastic book and a fitting end to the Seasons quartet. Timely and timeless

Mariam Abdel-Razek

Maisie MacDonald

Will Vunderink

Kyle Curry

Kaycee

Charlotte Dann

Ana Ferreira

Jacob Mishook

'These novels, in straddling immediacy and permanence, the personal as well as the scope of a world tilting toward disaster, are the ones we might well be looking back on years from now as the defining literature of an indefinable era. And the shape the telling takes is, if not salvation, brilliance itself' - The New York Times on the Seasonal quartet so far

Summer

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