Like

Summary

Ali Smith's "beautifully written, precise, poetic" (The Observer) debut that follows the briefly intertwined lives oftwo young womenWhen we meet Amy Shone, she is a young parent struggling to raise Kate, a precocious eight-year-old. Amy isan enigma-a brilliant scholar who has forgotten how to read. She is estranged from her wealthy English parentsand lives a nomadic life in Scotland, dragging Kate from one school to the next, barely scraping by.And then there is Ash, a fiery Scottish actresss who cannot shake her demons-chief among them an unrequitedpassion for Amy that has obsessed her ever since they met as teenagers. Like is the story of two parallel livesthat intersect briefly, then diverge. It is also a timeless evocation of adolescence and its agonizing anticipations,its contradictory yearnings for freedom and safety, its blind quest for mastery over pleasure and pain. Deftlyconstructed, passionately imagined, Like is a remarkable debut from a powerful talent.