The endlessly inventive Ali Smith returns with the sister story to 2024’s strikingly allegorical Gliff. This time she’s bringing the political back home to the closely personal. We again meet two siblings helping each other through a difficult childhood - in the shadow of their quietly abusive father and the death of their mother they use their bright, powerful imaginations to tell each other a story that might help them survive. But when does a story take on a life of its own, like a ghost (sometimes a very literal and loud ghost) that won’t leave us alone? Glyph, like its smart and charming characters, is brimful of questions like these. How does global politics intersect and interrupt our everyday lives? How do we as individuals find agency in a deeply troubled and troubling world. With competing and confusing stories all around us how do we find what is honest and true, and avoid getting stuck in someone else’s version of the narrative? Smith’s genius is in wrapping these often complex ideas into a heartfelt story about normal people, and inviting every reader to think about them with her. Smith’s simply powerful writing never lets me down, with its joyful exploration of what words can do and where ideas can lead us. She continues to be a guiding light of courage in bleak times, always hopeful that good people paying attention to the world can make a difference.