How to Be Both
Ali Smith · b. 1962 · Scotland
Why it matters
A teenage girl mourning her mother and the ghost of a Renaissance painter share one novel printed in two different orders, each reader receiving a different opening half. Smith's most formally daring novel turns gender, grief, and art history into a genuine structural gamble.
At a glance
postmodernpsychological novel
Difficulty 6/10slow pace320 pagesA dual, shuffled structure and a Renaissance narrator's unfamiliar idiom require attentive rereading.
