The Accidental is the dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family's summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts--parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid--encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light. Smith's exhilarating facility with language, her narrative freedom, her chromatic wordplay propel the novel to its startling, wonderfully enigmatic conclusion.
Ali Smith's acclaimed …