Summer: Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021: 4 (Seasonal Quartet, 4) Paperback – 6 May 2021

This final part in Smith's seasonal quartet does everything a reader could have hoped for it to do. The line that has been slowly drawing each story together comes full circle (just like the seasons - imagine!) and the craft involved in achieving that with such art and warmth and humanity is astonishing. As ever, the politics are stated clearly on the page and while that's likely to be off-putting to some, in this final part of the quartet in particular it only veers occasionally towards didactic and even then does so with such lightness and grace it feels entirely within keeping. I can't think of another writer who would be able to deliver such a considered, sweeping tale that is so clearly years in the making with such up-to-date considerations. Summer is a standout novel to be read and recommended on its own. Within the context of the series it's a triumph – the quartet as a whole is infinitely more than the sum of its (not at all inconsiderable) parts.

A stream of consciousness novel that so perfectly encapsulates the feelings of that time. Wonderfully written and deeply poignant.

So that we might then inform the future. However we don't seem to be learning from the past so we can't expect the future to take us seriously either.The above makes this novel sound really dreary but nothing could be further from the the truth, which make the messages it's trying convey all the more powerful.The words fair dance off the page because of the way Smith plays with time, language, and points of view.This is a book I plan to listen to again as I think I will get out of it after hearing it but I am glad to have read it first.

So, sumner is over. Parts 1 and 3 were enthralling;. poetic and beautifully poised. But part 2 was not. It was drawn out, confusing (deliberately?) and disengaging. What was going on and when left me in the dark, lost and careless for an escape. The four novels were intriguing but i must confess as to being more in admiration or perhaps awe of the writing than moved by it. A curate's egg of a quartet.

This was a fitting conclusion to the seasonal quartet, which began in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, and traced the fault lines of our society through the past four years. It draws together characters and themes from the three previous novels and succeeds in the rare feat of analysing our woes but still touching our hearts. It's a great piece of work, and a highly enjoyable read.

This is the brilliant culmination of Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet. It is probably the best stand alone novel of the four. But it is also great because it 'stands on the shoulders of giants', the other three previous novels. It is a multi viewpoint narrative, which merges history and the present, to excellent and poignant effect.

I’ve become quite a fan of Smith over the past year since I studied a couple of her books for an English Literature course last year. I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed the other books in the seasonal quartet. The books deals with similar themes, ideas and concepts but don’t feature the same events or characters. If you read Smith you’ll recognise her distractive style and structure from the rest of the quarter or Hotel World. What impressed me is that a large part of Summer is set now, during the current pandemic but Smith makes very little references to this, it isn’t the driving force or the backbone of the book. I’m glad because I don’t want to read a Covid-19 novel. The real thing is bad enough. I enjoyed this so much, the characters and the way their lives clash in surprising ways.

This fourth of the quartet concludes in a way that is so thoughtful and wonderfully crafted, so contemporary and beautifully written that you will see how summer permeates all seasons, and sunshine outcasts all cloud.