Summer: Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021: 4

So excited to finally own this series! It came in perfect condition :)

Final book in the quartet brings the stories together. Thought-provoking and memorable. My favourite two characters from “Autumn” re-appear and the back story emerges in a way that is elegaic and immediate. Smith deals with heavy issues but in a subtle way. She writes like a poet at times. Her political concerns are fairly visible but not to the detriment of the human story. At the end one wonders how she could pack so many stories into such a short space, as there is enough material for 500 pages but it is over in about 200.

Ultimo romanzo di Ali Smith legata alle stagioni. Chi ha letto i romanzi precedenti troverà personaggi e situazioni già conosciuti, tuttavia anche chi non li ha letti può apprezzare questo lavoro, in cui si trovano temi cari all’autrice inglese come lo stato della nazione (UK) post brexit insieme a un riferimento di stringente attualità alla cattiva gestione della pandemia nel Regno Unito. Con una nota di speranza alla fine.

Op aanraden van Sander Kollaert kocht ik het 1e deel van deze serie van Ali Smit, een mij onbekende schrijfster. De boeken zijn alle vier prachtig eloquent geschreven en zeer verrassend wat verhaallijn betreft. Een grote vreugde om te lezen.

Just finished Summer and am going back to read Autumn, Winter, Spring. Joining the dots, as Ali’s Smith does divinely

This final part in Smith's seasonal quartet does everything a reader could have hoped for it to do. The line that has been slowly drawing each story together comes full circle (just like the seasons - imagine!) and the craft involved in achieving that with such art and warmth and humanity is astonishing. As ever, the politics are stated clearly on the page and while that's likely to be off-putting to some, in this final part of the quartet in particular it only veers occasionally towards didactic and even then does so with such lightness and grace it feels entirely within keeping. I can't think of another writer who would be able to deliver such a considered, sweeping tale that is so clearly years in the making with such up-to-date considerations. Summer is a standout novel to be read and recommended on its own. Within the context of the series it's a triumph – the quartet as a whole is infinitely more than the sum of its (not at all inconsiderable) parts.