Book summary

A British family, the Smarts, on summer vacation, find their domestic façade irreparably ruffled by the appearance of a charismatic woman, Amber, who insinuates herself into their lives, hearts, and minds. In THE ACCIDENTAL, as in her eerie and brilliant HOTEL WORLD, Ali Smith proves to be a master of assuming the voices of myriad characters and seeing the world through their biased eyes. Employing a delightfully subjective third-person perspective, Smith opens up the inner-workings of the Smart family: the didactic and philandering father, the anxious and self-denying mother, and the two marvelously off-kilter kids. All of them seem drawn to and oddly deluded by Amber, and, at times, Smith renders Amber's actions from multiple viewpoints in a style reminiscent of RASHOMON. Her treatment of the characters is like a brilliant autopsy: precise, unsettling, and, in the end, a revelation.

Media reviews

"Ms. Smith is a wonderful ventriloquist, adept at throwing her voice into an astonishing array of characters....[S]he captures their thoughts, their dream lives, their sense of their place in the world with perfect and unwavering pitch."