This is a story where we are reminded we can all be heroic in big and small ways. Human connection and individual kindnesses can help save us all. Summer draws together all the threads you want it to from the earlier books, but can also stand alone. Ali Smith has such a way with words and creating stories.

The last of Ali Smith's seasonal quartet, which dig into migration and xenophobia in post-Brexit Britain through the story of centenarian Daniel and the people around him. Set during the beginning of the pandemic.

I am late getting to this one but glad to have finished the quartet. The parts of this story I most enjoyed were the contemporary storyline of Sacha and her younger brother Robert. Much was said about the shit show that is 2020 and I appreciated the authors creativity of telling a narrative while also injecting some opinion. Ultimately for me, this was a great work at parts although timelines jumped all over the place. I think if my ability to recall the previous 3 works in this seasonal quartet were better I would've enjoyed it more. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a drc after its release and I look forward to the author's future projects.

I do not personally jive with Ali Smith's style; I'm always disappointed by that because her titles always sound perfect for me. Maybe someday!

This was a delightful reading experience, and a recapitulation of-- and variation on-- all of the themes that Smith has so deftly woven throughout the quartet. Not just the obligatory references to an obscure female artist, a Shakespeare play, a Dickens quotation, and a Chaplin movie. But also subtler connections amongst the four novels' characters and events, drawing them deeper into a web of historical parallels. It might be churlish of me to complain about the hastily tacked-on response to Covid as the book was going into press, and the way the middle third (about Daniel's wartime internment camp experience) seemed overly padded out. Other reviewers have convinced me that really need to reread the entire quartet from the beginning as a complete work of art, but the shagginess of Summer didn't measure up to the sheer perfection of Spring.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC, in exchange for this unbiased review.

Masterful finale to the seasonal series, but I felt something was missed as I did not read the other books recently. There may be a benefit to reading these over the course of one year, so I will attempt that at a later date. Appreciated the hopefulness here, especially during current political and pandemic situations.

I will be sad to see this fine series end. Ali Smith's finger is always on the pulse of contemporary Britain. She should be read now but she'll be treasured by literary readers and social scientists in the future.

This book is a lovely wrap up of the author's seasonal quartet. It brings together some of the charming characters from <i>Autumn</i> and <i>Spring</i> and continues the theme of xenophobia, while offering the hope of mutual aid and understanding. I learned about an Italian filmmaker (kind of a snooze) and internment camps for British people of German ancestry during World Wars I and II (interesting and disturbing, in light of the present day refugee detention centers). Recommended for all readers.