There's Amy and there's Ash. There's ice and there's fire. There's England and there's Scotland. Ali Smith evokes the twin spirits of time and place in an extraordinarily powerful first novel. Subtle and complex, seductive and exhilarating, here is a story about what it means to be alive: this is what it's like. 'Ingenious, shimmering fiction, written with a poetic grace that subtly illuminates the tensions between hope and desire, between past and present' Scotland on Sunday'An elegiac, haunting quality . . . Smith's relish for language is captivating' Literary Review'Endearing' Elle'Beautifully written in precise, poetic prose that successfully evokes the love of like for like' Observer