Ali Smith, prize-winning novelist and friend of Norwich UNESCO City of Literature, returns to our fine city to share her affecting and timely new novel, ‘Gliff’.
The first instalment of an audacious duology finds the incomparable literary novelist on scintillating form, as she tackles themes both complex and universal.
‘Gliff ’ is a novel about how we make meaning and how we are made meaningless. With a nod to the traditions of dystopian fiction, a glance at the Kafkaesque, and a new take on the notion of classic, it’s a moving and electrifying read, a vital and prescient tale of the versatility and variety deep-rooted in language, in nature and in human nature.
The first of two novels, ‘Gliff’, which is a Scottish/northern word for a shock, a fright, a transient moment, a glance or sudden glimpse, will be followed by a second novel in 2025, called ‘Glyph’ (a signifying mark – as in ‘hieroglyph’). ‘Glyph’, the second novel, will tell a story which is hidden in the first so the two books will belong together but can be read independently.
Ali will be in conversation with Chris Gribble. The event will be followed by a book signing.
