MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST The first novel in Ali Smiths Seasonal Quartet is an unforgettable story about aging and time and loveand stories themselves.

Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Two old friendsDaniel, a centenarian, and Elisabeth, born in 1984look to both the future and the past as the United Kingdom stands divided by a historic, once-in-a-generation summer. Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand-in-hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever.

A luminous meditation on the meaning of richness and harvest and worth, Autumn is the first installment of Ali Smiths Seasonal Quartet, and it casts an eye over our own time: Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearean jeu desprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s pop art. Autumn is wide-ranging in time-scale and light-footed through histories.