When you think of excellent, living British writers who happen to be lesbians, do you stop after Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson? Ali Smith should be right there. Author of four collections of stories, a shortish retelling of the Iphis myth, a nonfiction book about reading, and three major novels, she has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, twice shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and won a Whitbread [now Costa] Award. On sale yesterday in the U.S., her newest collection The First Person and Other Stories
earned a rave review from Publishers Weekly:
Smith handily proves the truism that everyone has their own tale to
tell in this bangup collection. From "The History of History," where a
young narrator focuses on the fashion-related aspects of the beheading
of Mary, queen of Scots, to block out problems at home, to "Writ," where
a grown woman sits down for an involved chat with her 14-year-old self,
the author takes readers on lyrical rides through the lives of everyday
Britons....At once quirky and compulsively readable, this collection puts a
layered and enjoyable spin on the many forms of the short story.
If stories aren't your thing, you might try Hotel World
or The Accidental. Among her fans is Alain de Botton, who said, "She's a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense."
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