Книга: Winter (Ali Smith); Ballantine Books, 2017

Dark yet life-affirming, endlessly inventive and heart-breakingly human - the next novel in the 'Seasonal' cycle, following the Man Booker-shortlisted Autumn

Winter? Bleak. Earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. But winter makes things visible. And Christmas is a time for family reunions, unexpected guests and evergreen truths.

It's December in Cornwall and Art's mother is seeing things. Art has problems too. His girlfriend has left so he's paying Lux, a young immigrant he found on the street, to impersonate her - but Lux has no intention of sticking to the script. And Iris, Art's prodigal aunt, septuagenarian CND-er and black sheep of the family, is about to arrive with a car full of food and a throat full of protest songs. Four people, strangers and family, in a fifteen-bedroom house for Christmas - will there be enough room for everyone?

Winter casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, art, love and memory, protest and survival.