Companion piece (Penguin Books)

The unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal Quartet'A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.'Here we are in extraordinary times.Is this history?What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other?What have we lost?What stays with us?What does it take to unlock our future?Following her astonishing quartet of Seasonal novels, Ali Smith again lights a way for us through the nightmarish now, in a vital celebration of companionship in all its forms.'Every hello, like every voice, holds its story ready, waiting.'Praise for the Seasonal QuartetA ONCE IN A GENERATION SERIES'State-of-the-nation novels which understand that the nation is you, is me, is all of us' New Statesman'Ali Smith is lighting us a path out of the nightmarish now' Observer'A book to savour, a literary tour de force that captures the nation's psyche exquisitely' Evening kanon on SummerSummer won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and was a Sunday Times Number 1 bestsellerAutumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize