![]() ![]() “The whole world’s learning that lesson simultaneously right now, one way or the other. Smith began writing in January, includes Covid-19, Australia’s fires, the Black Lives Matter protests and the oddities of life in lockdown. All across the country, people felt bereaved and shocked.” Often unnamed but not unfelt, Brexit and its fallout provide the backdrop for the entire series, yet “Winter” (2017) and “Spring” (2019) also touch on the migrant crisis, the American president and climate change. ![]() Published four months after the 2016 Brexit referendum, “Autumn” captures the disorientation of a nation in flux: “All across the country, people felt legitimized. ![]() Smith was working on the first of the novels as Britain voted to leave the European Union. What she cannot have predicted was that her so-called Seasonal Quartet would span some of the newsiest years in ages. To order your copy for £14. ![]() She planned to give herself four months for each book (she likes to write quickly, she says) and to deliver them as close to their publication dates as possible-in a nod to the Victorian mode of timely storytelling. Summer will be published by Hamish Hamilton on August 8 at £16.99. publisher in 2015, she envisioned a series of poetic meditations on time and nature. When the Scottish author pitched the idea to her U.K. A li Smith had long hoped to write a set of novels named for the seasons. ![]()
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