Arresting and wonderful, The Accidental pans in on the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family one hot summer. There a beguiling stranger called Amber appears at the door bearing all sorts of unexpected gifts, trampling over family boundaries and sending each of the Smarts scurrying from the dark into the light.

A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves, The Accidental explores the nature of truth, the role of fate and the power of storytelling.

‘A beguiling page-turner. . . a brilliant creation. To read The Accidental is to be excited from first to last’ Independent

‘Joyous, a shot across the bows. . . writing as rapture, as giddy delight’ The Times

‘Brilliant and engaging, frequently hilarious. . . Smith makes one look at the world afresh’ Sunday Telegraph

Ali Smith is the author of novels Girl Meets Boy, Like, The Accidental, Hotel World and There but for the. She has published the short story collections The First Person and Other Stories, Free Love and Other Stories, Other Stories and Other Stories and The Whole Story and Other Stories. She has been twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, twice nominated for the Orange Prize and won the Whitbread Novel of the Year in 2005.