Cum sa fii si una si alta

Ali Smith links two lives in this novel. One is an Italian painter from the Renaissance. The other is a teenage girl in the modern world. Their stories explore love, art, and the loss of their mothers. Both face grief and seek lives beyond fixed roles.

Smith uses a new form to ask who we are. Can one person have more than one identity? She writes of loss without being sentimental. She also shows how art can change lives. Language and works of literature help shape these linked tales. The novel won the Goldsmiths Prize. It also reached the Man Booker shortlist.