Paperback, 320 pages
English language
Published Oct. 8, 2020 by Penguin Books.
One hot summer a stranger arrives at the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family. Intriguing, beguiling, arresting, Amber brings love, joy, pain and not a little upheaval, throwing the carefully ordered world of the Smarts into the air. They will be forever changed by Amber but how will they know whether it is for the bad, the good or something else entirely? --back cover
A Super-TOB comment said it best: "September 2020 was not the right time for me to read The Accidental. I can appreciate what Ali Smith was trying to do, but my brain needs more plot and less introspection right now."
This was a weird book. Not that is wasn't enjoyable because it was. But what makes it weird is the reader is at a loss as to if the character of Amber was malevolent or benevolent. Were the characters that encountered Amber's unique form of "friendship" better off by knowing her? Who was Amber? Where did she come from, where did she go? Was her visit premeditated? All these questions are left ultimately to the imagination of the reader. And what about that ending? What was that all about?
