Girl meets boy. It's a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances?
Girl meets boy. It’s a story as old as time. But in Whitbread winner Ali Smith’s lyrical, funny, mash-up of Ovid’s most joyful gender-bending metamorphosis story, girl meets boy in so many more ways than one. Imogen and Anthea, sisters that are opposites, work together at Pure, a creative agency attempting to “bottle imagination, politics, and nature” in the form of a new Scottish bottled-water business with global aspirations. Anthea, somewhat flighty and bored with the office environment, becomes enamored of an “interventionist protest artist” nicknamed Iphisol, whose billboard-size corporate slurs around town are the bane of Pure’s existence. And when Anthea and Iphisol meet, it’s a match made in heaven.
Girl Meets Boy is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, the absurdity of consumerism, as well as a story of reversals and revelations that’s as sharply witty as it is lyrical. Funny, fresh, poetic, and political, Girl Meets Boy is a myth of metamorphosis for the modern world.
Exuberant . . . Slender, sweet natured and lyrical ― Guardian
Joyful -- JEANETTE WINTERSON ― The Times
Girl Meets Boy pulls you in and doesn't let you go . . . bold and brilliant -- JACKIE KAY
A glorious wide-awake dream of a book . . . My heart was beating and tears stood in my eyes, even as I had the biggest smile written all over my face -- KIRSTY GUNN ― Observer
Poetic . . . Smith remembers what the ancients knew: that musical words drum a beat through to understanding ― The Times
Clever, complex and thrilling ― TLS
A joyful and playful remix . . . The result is an ecstatic, exhilarating helter-skelter ride of a story which shows just how relevant Ovid's myth of the transformative power of love is to modern readers ― Financial Times
Those familiar with Smith's playfully inventive fiction will not be disappointed by this light-as-air retelling of Ovid's tale . . . this jolly jeu d'esprit wears its heart defiantly on its sleeve ― The Times
[A] whimsical spin on the myth of Iphis and Ianthe . . . mischief, enchantment and impish wit . . . [Smith's] dancing prose and nimble storytelling are palpable hits ― Sunday Times
In this modern-day reinterpretation, Ali Smith, with humour and typical linguistic versatility, explores issues of homophobia, corporate and social responsibility and the sheer vertiginous feeling of falling in love ― Independent on Sunday
