At a dinner party, one of the guests, a stranger to the hosts, locks himself into the spare room and refuses to come out. The effect of his actions ripples out to affect the people whose lives have intersected his and even to those whose haven't. It's a strange topic so I was wondering what this would be like but the book hooked me very quickly. Ali Smith's likeable and human characters are somehow heart-warming. I was left wondering though, why Miles, who seems like such a likeable chap, has no close friends or family to come forwards. I think there's some allegory going on there but I'm not quite sure what.

Sent to Blue_berry as RABCK for February. Enjoy the book! :)

Received with thanks!

An original read again from Ali Smith. Very English, very London today, skillfully put together. However, after reading this and Hotel World from the same author, I've now come to conclusion that I don't really like her style, not much happening and the last chapter was painful to read, with no punctuation, it's just like being on a commuter train having to listen to someone's mindless chatter...

Sending off to Germany as part of wishlist tag game, enjoy!

Thank you! Just got back from the Gothenburg Convention and this was waiting for me.

A great novel. Easy to read, but not shallow, at times quite a pageturner, sometimes satiric, sometimes philosophical. It reminded me of the other novel by Ali Smith that I read, The Accidental - where a stranger disrupts a family's life too.
I liked the novel's structure - four parts, told by different protagonists, who all know the man who locks himself in a room during a dinner party. And those four parts explain the weird title There but for the.

Travelling to Arvores.
Enjoy!

And here it is, after the wishlist tag game.
Came together with another book (surprise!) and a nice picture of the sky as a bookmark.

Thanks again for such generous offer.