by Ali Smith
First published 1988
Elisabeth Demand, a young art historian, reconnects with Daniel Gluck, her elderly former neighbor, as Britain fractures in the wake of Brexit. Once her childhood confidant, Daniel now lies half-conscious in a care home, his memories flickering between past and present. As Elisabeth visits him, she uncovers layers of his extraordinary life—his refugee history, his artistic passions, his resistance to cultural amnesia. Their bond becomes a counterpoint to the increasingly hostile social landscape: walls rising, connections breaking, history being rewritten. Through conversations that drift between reality and imagination, Elisabeth learns to understand time not as a linear progression, but as a fluid, interconnected experience where past and present constantly reshape each other.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Great Britain
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · ebook · Penguin