Hotel World

Woooooooo-hooooooo. Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very different fates make for this playful, defiant, and richly inventive novel. Forget room service: this is a riotous elegy, a deadpan celebration of colliding worlds, and a spirited defense of love. Blending incisive wit with surprising compassion,Hotel Worldis a wonderfully invigorating, life-affirming book.

Ali Smith’s first collection of stories won the Saltire First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Award. She lives in Cambridge, England.