There but for the

Description

There But For The is a 2011 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published in the UK by Hamish Hamilton and in the US by Pantheon, and set in 2009 and 2010 in Greenwich, London. It was cited by both The Guardian book review and the Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year. and was also longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Excerpt

The fact is, imagine a man sitting on an exercise bike in a spare room.

Description

Imagine you give a dinner party and a friend of a friend brings a stranger to your house as his guest. He seems pleasant enough. Imagine that this stranger goes upstairs halfway through the dinner party and locks himself in one of your bedrooms and won't come out. Imagine you can't move him for days, weeks, months. If ever. This is what Miles does, in a chichi house in the historic borough of Greenwich, in the years 2009 and 2010, in There but for the. Who is Miles, then? And what does it mean, exactly, to live with other people? Sharply satirical and sharply compassionate, with an eye to the meanings of the smallest of words and the slightest of resonances, There but for the fuses disparate perspectives in a crucially communal expression of identity, and explores our very human attempts to navigate between despair and hope, enormity and intimacy, cliché and grace. --front flap

Subjects

Other Editions

• There but for theHardcoverHamish Hamilton2011-01-01
• There but for theeBookPantheon Books2011-01-01
• There but for theHardcoverPantheon Books2011-01-01
• There but for thePaperbackW F Howes2011-01-01
• There but for thePaperbackPenguin Export2012-07-05
• There But For The: A NovelPaperbackAnchor2012-07-24