There but for the
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  • Published: 22 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141025193
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $22.99

There but for the

Formats & editions
Paperback
22 Aug 2012
EBook
1 Aug 2011
Audiobook
11 Feb 2021
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A warm, joyful novel that fizzes with humanity and love of language - by the bestselling author of The Accidental

'There once was a man who, one night between the main course and the sweet at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party . . . '

As the hours turn to days to weeks to months and the consequences of this stranger's actions ripple outwards, touching the owners, the guests, the neighbourhood then the whole country, so Ali Smith draws us into a beautiful, strange place where everyone is so much more than they at first appear.
  • Published: 22 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141025193
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Ali Smith

Ali Smith is the author of Free Love and Other Stories, Like, Other Stories and Other Stories, Hotel World, The Whole Story and Other Stories, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy, The First Person and Other Stories, There but for the, Artful, How to be both, Public library and other stories and Autumn. Hotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize and The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Orange Prize. How to be both won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Folio Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

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Let Your Light Shine
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Praise for There but for the

Whimsically devastating. Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly clever and profoundly affecting

Guardian

Remarkable. A brilliant novel: funny, serious, always surprising, always true

The Times

I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul

Evening Standard

A playfully serious or seriously playful novel full of wit and pleasure. Wonderful

Observer

Eccentric, adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read. The writing dances along

Literary Review

Poignant, empathetic, funny. A book full of kindness and compassion

Time Out

Fizzying, affectionate, sparkling. Smith presents her world view in words as fresh as lemons. A joyful read

Herald

A tour de force

Lionel Shriver, Financial Times

A virtuoso piece of writing, both funny and gripping . . . Smith is a writer with a rich array of conventional strengths

Times Literary Supplement

A must read

Toronto NOW