Ali Smith’s Glyph is an exhilarating and excoriating follow-up to Gliff

By Sarah Annes Brown, Professor of English Literature, Anglia Ruskin University

Ali Smith’s Glyph is the companion novel to her earlier novel, Gliff (2024). Gliff was set in a surreal near-future dystopia. Glyph, meanwhile, is set in the present. But like Smith’s earlier Seasonal Quartet, it offers the reader an uncanny version of our world, haunted by ghostly voices from the past.

The novel focuses on two sisters, Petra and Patricia (aka Patch). The action moves between scenes from their childhood in the 1990s and their present-day estrangement.

Two chance family anecdotes…

Read complete article

~	Budapest Mayor Charged for Holding Pride March

~	Why Iran keeps turning off the internet during mass protests

~	Small-scale farmers produce more of the rich world’s food than previously thought – new study

~	US abandons Syria’s Kurds, risking regional turmoil and an IS resurgence

~	Industry season four exposes the Faustian bargain of modern work culture

~	Apple’s unrivalled commitment to excellence is fading – a designer explains why

~	Social media is boosting mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts among teens, particularly in girls

~	The circular economy may not be taking off: Here are six ways stakeholders can make it happen

~	Scientists have identified unique sounds for 8 fish species

~	There are long-lasting, negative effects for children like Liam Ramos who are detained, or watch their parents be deported