Publisher, HighBridge Audio (February 2006)

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Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize!

"Outstanding performances by a superb ensemble cast." —Gail Cooke, Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

Barefoot, thirty-something Amber shows up at the door of a Norfolk cottage that the Smarts are renting for the summer. Amber doesn’t know them, but she talks her way in, telling lies, and stays for dinner. Eve, an author, thinks Amber is a student her husband is sleeping with. Michael, an English professor, knows only that her car broke down. Daughter Astrid, age 12, thinks she’s her mother’s friend. Son Magnus, 17, thinks she’s an angel.

Gradually, Amber insinuates herself into the family. Dazzled by her seeming exoticism, the Smarts begin to examine the accidents of their lives under the searing lens of Amber’s perceptions. When Eve finally banishes her from the cottage, Amber disappears from their sight, but not—as they find when they return home to London—from their profoundly altered lives.

Fearlessly intelligent, disarmingly playful, The Accidental is a Joycean tour-de-force of literary improvisation that explores the nature of truth, the role of chance, and the transformative power of storytelling.

About the Author: Ali Smith has written six works of fiction including Hotel World, which was shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize and won the Encore Award and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award. Her story collections include Free Love, which won the Saltire First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Award. Born in Inverness, Scotland, she now lives in Cambridge, England.