This is my favourite novel from the 2017 Man Booker Prize shortlist, and is the first of a quartet from Smith. Hilarious, poignant and clever all at once, it is set in England (just) post the Brexit vote. Academic Elisabeth Demand visits her mother in the country and relates some of their difficult history. In a nearby hospice lies Daniel Gluck, an old neighbour with whom Elisabeth had been very close. Now well over 100 years old, Daniel is not expected to last long, but remembering their friendship, Elisabeth begins to visit and sit with him. Over the course of several weeks in Autumn, as the country reels from the recent vote to leave Europe, Daniel dreams, Elisabeth remembers, and she and her mother begin to connect.
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