THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
The unmissable new work from Ali Smith, following the dazzling Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet
One day in post-Brexit, mid-pandemic Britain, artist Sandy Gray receives an unexpected phone call from university acquaintance Martina Pelf. Martina is calling Sandy to ask for help with a mysterious question she's been left with after she's spent half a day locked in a room by border control officials for no reason she can fathom:
'Curlew or curfew? You choose.'
And what's any of this got to do with the story of a young and talented blacksmith hounded from her trade and her home more than five hundred years ago?
Ali Smith's novel takes wing, soaring between our atomised present and our medieval past in the hope we can open our locked down homes and selves to all the other times, other species, other histories, other possibilities.
'[An] entertaining and expert portrayal of the world we live in, seen by the most beguiling and likeable of novelistic intelligences' Telegraph
'[Companion piece] makes you look at the world afresh. For me, it turned a cold and depressing day into a bright one' New Statesman
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2022



![Manchan, Magan IRISH INTEREST Magan Manchan: Listen to the Land Speak [2022] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/manchan-magan-magan-manchan-listen-to-the-land-speak-2022-hardback-57197364117843_{width}x.jpg?v=1743077146)
![Matthew, Perry BARGAIN FILM Matthew Perry: Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: 'A candid, darkly funny book' New York Times [2022] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/matthew-perry-matthew-perry-friends-lovers-and-the-big-terrible-thing-a-candid-darkly-funny-book-new-york-times-2022-paperback-58541711753555_{width}x.jpg?v=1726942813)
![Yarros, Rebecca BARGAIN BOOKTOK Rebecca Yarros: Iron Flame [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/yarros-rebecca-rebecca-yarros-iron-flame-2023-paperback-57259954602323_{width}x.jpg?v=1726753088)
![Lynch, Paul IRISH FICTION Paul Lynch: Prophet Song [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/lynch-paul-paul-lynch-prophet-song-2023-paperback-57686922002771_{width}x.jpg?v=1732016939)
![Keegan, Claire IRISH FICTION Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 [2022] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/keegan-claire-claire-keegan-small-things-like-these-shortlisted-for-the-booker-prize-2022-2022-paperback-59373419102547_{width}x.jpg?v=1758902529)