New release - GLIFF by Ali Smith

This week’s new release comes from Ali Smith, called Gliff, and is a hopeful and prescient tale which is an invitation to ‘rethink and reword our way to a brave new world’ (Michelle de Kretser). Although we haven’t yet read the book (it’s out on the 31st October) the reviews conjure the feeling of a story that distills the best bits of her Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer series, generating a book of possibility and potential bright futures.

The book could be described as one which fits the new genre of thrutopia, a term coined by Manda Scott, author of the recent Any Human Power. Thrutopian fiction aims to inspire everyone across the globe to strive for something better, stories that road-test our ideas for the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. We have our own local thrutopian fiction writer in Denise Baden who tells the tale of the Habitat Man and is based on many of the inspiring activities that are already happening in Southampton.

Do let us know what you think of Ali’s book and the others. All are great uplifting stories for Christmas we feel.