Ali Smith's Autumn contains some truly gorgeous and inventive prose, which by itself makes it worth reading; and as an added bonus, there are frequent riffs on famous works of literature. The story is very much low drama, perhaps to contrast with the turmoil both recent (the Brexit vote has just happened and most of the contemporary characters are greatly shocked by it) and ancient (the 1963 Profumo affair also plays an important role). The novel is entertaining at every point, but the parts perhaps do not come together into something much greater than themselves. In that respect the second volume, Winter, which has a more coherent family drama at its core, is better.