Winter
Ali Smith
Penguin, £8.99, pp336 (paperback)
After the Booker-shortlisted Autumn, Ali Smith quickly returned to her quartet of responses to our fractured, chaotic world with Winter. Brexit and the Grenfell Tower disaster lurk in the background as Sophia, a mother in her 60s and something of a Scrooge-like character, works through the ghosts of her Christmases past. For a book that begins: “Romance was dead… art was dead… history was dead, culture was dead, love was dead… a great many things were dead…” it’s telling that Smith can still find a modicum of hope and recovery through the bafflement and bitterness. Can’t wait for Spring.
Tirzah and the Prince of Crows
Deborah Kay Davies
Oneworld, £14.99, pp400
Set in the stifling atmosphere of a small Welsh religious community in the 70s, this coming-of-age tale of a teenage girl caught between confinement and an alluring freedom is familiar territory. What’s different about Deborah Kay Davies’s story, though, is her use of the imagery and language of Welsh myth. It makes for a profound sense of place – though possibly at the expense of a wholly satisfying plot, as the young heroine embraces the realisation that life is both beautiful and ungovernable.
State of Play
Michael Calvin
Century, £16.99, pp464
Journalist Michael Calvin has always been a perceptive chronicler of how football operates on a human level. But State of Play is surely this award-winning writer’s best book to date; a thought-provoking survey of all the characters who make the game tick and also exploit it for their own ends. Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, it is full of insight and genuine love for football.
To order Winter for £7.73, Tirzah and the Prince of Crows for £12.89, or State of Play for £14.61, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
