A witness to the war

A striking interrogation of language in an age of mechanical mass destruction

- By Keiran Goddard

Never knowingly unknowing, Ali Smith preempts the most likely criticism of her latest novel, Glyph, when a character says: “I’m just not sure that books that are novels and fiction and so on should be so close to real life ... or so politically blatant.”

Glyph, which follows sisters Petra and Patch as they reflect on childhood attempts to grapple with death following the loss of their mother, goes further than any of Smith's recent work in answering this charge. While the Seasonal Quartet playfully anatomised the social fracture of post-Brexit Britain, and immediate predecessor Gliff dealt with the violence of the securitised state, Glyph, in its explicit engagement with the Israeli government's apartheid and genocide in Palestine, raises the ethical stakes decisively. To engage in a Smithian pun - this is Art in the Age of Mechanical Mass Destruction.