What happens when you run into Death in a busy train station? (You know he's Death because when he smiles, your cell phone goes dead.) What if your lover falls in love with a tree? Should you be jealous? From the woman pursued by a band of bagpipers in full regalia to the artist who's built a seven-foot boat out of secondhand copies of The Great Gatsby, Smith's characters are offbeat, charming, sexy, and as wonderfully complex as life itself.
"One of Britain's major talents. . . . Startlingly accomplished." --The Atlantic Monthly
"A joy to read." --Sunday Times (London)
"Smith is a gifted and meticulous architect of character and voice." --The Washington Post
"She's street-savvy and poignant at once. . . . There's a kind of stainless steel clarity at the center of her fiction." --The Boston Globe
"Smith proves herself an experimental writer even your mother could love." --Elle