Companion piece

The new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of How to be both

By: Ali Smith

Narrated by: Natalie Simpson

Brought to you by Penguin.

The unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet


'A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.'


Here we are in extraordinary times.
Is this history?

What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other?
What have we lost?
What stays with us?
What does it take to unlock our future?

Following her astonishing quartet of Seasonal novels, Ali Smith again lights a way for us through the nightmarish now, in a vital celebration of companionship in all its forms.

'Every hello, like every voice, holds its story ready, waiting.'

© Ali Smith 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critic reviews

Superb, radical, remarkable (Mohsin Hamid)

A lockdown story of wayward genius . . . Lyrical visions alternate with fables and farce, history with Covid, in the scheme-busting fifth part of Smith's seasonal quartet (Lucy Hughes-Hallett)

Scintillating . . . Companion Piece, like life, is messy, funny, sad, beautiful and mysterious (Alex Preston)

Both a standalone novel and a coda to her Seasonal quartet, Ali Smith's latest, set during the pandemic, offers a wise and humane voice for perilous times

Smith's way of telling a story - looping in time; switching from one fast-flicking consciousness to another; tying up radically different periods of history in a single place - and her amused delight in the flexibilities of language feel not only modernist but, better than that, modern

Alive to the music and light of language

Smith's work is brainy and moving, thoughtful and playful

Like Smith's other novels, Companion piece is a formally dazzling story, constructed from a découpage of funny, messy, beautifully disparate elements

It is remarkable to be alive at the same time as Scottish writer Ali Smith . . . Smith is intellectually rigorous yet democratic, warm and - crucially - playful

Fantastic novel

Everyday life turns into magic in Ali Smith’s pen. What a story? It’s marvellous, heartbreaking and soothing, all at the same time.

Loved the story and narration

Great narration. Really made the story come alive. Short, engaging, funny, and serious story.