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It feels like a romcom plot. Art(hur) has been quarrelling with his girlfriend Charlotte. But he has promised his distant, seemingly cold mother that he'll bring her along for Christmas. Morbidly afraid of disappointing her, he hires random-girl-in-the-street Lux to take the place of Charlotte. Add a weird aunt who hasn't talked to the mother in years, but who is now called on to help; and Charlotte's funny though harsh online vengeance; and you have all the ingredients of a soppy feel good story.

Interestingly, Smith makes us feel relatively good, even though the background to the novel consists of Brexit, nuclear weapons protests, poisons that turn the land into a deadly hellscape, and in the last pages the Grenfell Tower fire. In this kaleidoscopic, wildly out-of-order narration, the trappings of romcom plots take on a new life and vitality, no doubt in part because they are juxtaposed with real-life horrors. And while they do not always lead to the exact outcomes we expect from the genre, there's enough hope and positivity here that Winter does what Winter ought to do: point towards Spring.

An entertaining, superbly written novel that makes us feel alive.

Orlando Furioso, the 16th century chivalric epic by Orlando Furioso, is one of the great masterworks of European literature. It has everything: one-on-one fights, big battles, horrible monsters, strange cities, and weird magic, yes; but also humorous asides, overviews of European history, funny sex stories, romance, soap opera, and incredibly modern discussions of the role of women in society -- a topic where Ariosto is ahead of many 21st century authors. It starts good, and then it becomes better and better! Of course the central idea, that the book will show us how the Muslim armies attack Charlemagne are defeated by the Christians (except for those who convert to Christianity) is a bit uncomfortable, but Ariosto is about as uninterested in religion as you can be while writing a book with this central idea and being paid by a leader of the Catholic Church. I can't recommend it enough.

The Dutch translation by Ike Cialona, in perfect verse, is brilliant. If you read this in some other translation, make sure you get a good one. There are some out-of-copyright English translations that feel stilted and would just be a slog to get through; this book deserves far better than that!