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  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241959589
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

Artful




Part fiction, part essay, a revelation of what writing can do and a reaffirmation of Ali Smith's unmatched literary powers

Originally four lectures given by Ali Smith at Oxford University, Artful is a tidal wave of ideas in four thematically organised bursts of thought: 'On Time', 'On Form', 'On Edge' and 'On Offer and On Reflection'.

Refusing to be tied down to either fiction or the essay form, Artful is narrated by a character who is haunted - literally - by a former lover, the writer of a series of lectures about art and literature. Full of both the poignancy and humour of fiction and all the sideways insights and jaunty angles you would expect from Ali Smith's criticism, it explores form, style, life, love, death, mortality, immortality and what art and writing can mean.

  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241959589
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

About the author

Ali Smith

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the author of several novels and short story collections including, The Accidental, Hotel World, How to Be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

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Praise for Artful

Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most exciting writers today

Daily Telegraph

Dazzlingly inventive

A.S. Byatt

She's a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense

Alain de Botton

Stylish, witty, offbeat and consummately likeable . . . Ali Smith is always good company

Irish Times