by Ali Smith
First published 2011
At a Greenwich dinner party, a stranger named Miles enters and then inexplicably locks himself in an upstairs bedroom. Days pass. Then weeks. Then months. The homeowners cannot—or will not—remove him. As Miles remains suspended in his self-imposed isolation, the ripples of his strange action spread through the lives of those connected to the event: his reluctant hosts, the friend who brought him, curious neighbors, and distant acquaintances. Each perspective reveals a fragment of Miles's mysterious motivations, creating a kaleidoscopic portrait of a man who has chosen radical disconnection. What drives someone to such an extreme act of social withdrawal? And what does his silence reveal about connection, solitude, and the unspoken boundaries of human interaction?
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: multiple-perspectives, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Greenwich, London, England
357 pages · Hardcover · Hamish Hamilton