THE BEST NEW FICTION

Companion Piece

Ali Smith

Hamish Hamilton £14.99 After her acclaimed Seasons Quartet, Ali Smith turns to Covid.

The freewheeling narrative and incessant wordplay will be familiar. A woman nicknamed Shifting Sand is phoned by an old college friend who has got her curlews and curfews confused. Then a time-travelling blacksmith joins the party. But if the writing sometimes feels frenetic, the sense of a world descending into chaos mirrors the times, with paranoid customs officials in masks and elderly relatives in hospital unable to receive visitors. This has to be the wackiest lockdown novel yet.

Max Davidson