Look At You

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Pub Date 24 Apr 2025 | Archive Date 24 Apr 2025

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Description

 Look at You is a novel in stories that follows the young narrator as she navigates the complexities of growing up in a divided family. 

Shifting between Trinidad and England, the writing is shapely, alive and has the grace to offer the reader space as privileged witness, eavesdropper – of being there – without manipulation or elbow-holding. This book grabs the attention elegantly, with sharp dialogue, acuteness of detail in observation, and the joy of meeting complex characters, worthy of attention. The frank and engaging narrator, recognising both the independent otherness of the people she writes about, has an alert eye for moments of epiphany, absurdity, sadness and comedy.

'Amanda Smyth writes like a descendant of Jean Rhys...a born novelist' ALI SMITH

‘Smyth’s writing is as lushly beautiful as the landscape she describes’ THE TIMES

‘Like Alice Walker, Smyth vividly and empathetically re-creates gender and racial tensions’ ELLE MAGAZINE

 Look at You is a novel in stories that follows the young narrator as she navigates the complexities of growing up in a divided family. 

Shifting between Trinidad and England, the writing is shapely...


Advance Praise

“Delicate, beautiful, intensely moving. Her best yet.” Claire Adam

“Through a succession of vignettes that quietly build and blossom and a minimalist prose that masterfully illuminates the inner lives of individuals inhabiting complex worlds, Amanda Smyth has created a marvellous tapestry of a novel.” Chloe Aridjis

“A beautiful, moving, and cleverly structured collage of a novel where huge tectonic plates of emotions grind and move under the surface of cool, spare, radiant prose.” Neel Mukherjee

Look At You sinks seamlessly into the reader’s heart and consciousness. Smyth's pared back, understated prose guides us to big feelings and considerable drama… Smyth writes like a lovechild of Jean Rhys. A remarkable novel. I loved it.” Monique Roffey

“What an engaging and absorbing novelist Amanda Smyth is, always coming at complex human relationships, passions, misunderstandings and loyalties from an unusual angle, and in beautifully crafted prose.” Amanda Craig

“Look At You uses an almost filmic montage of setting, incident and character to reveal the complexity of its central character. Every chapter has the precision and subtlety of a short story and together they offer just enough continuity to allow the reader to be both carried by the overall narrative but also to be becalmed in the simple understanding of how it is to be a person without direction, essentially alone in the world. The mixing – the editing – of these vignettes is beautifully executed. Worlds open up, understanding is granted, the pages flew by.”Jonathan Davidson

“Unfurling with an unassuming grace that belies its cumulative power, Look at You is beguiling, engrossing, penetrating, real.” Claire Kilroy

“Delicate, beautiful, intensely moving. Her best yet.” Claire Adam

“Through a succession of vignettes that quietly build and blossom and a minimalist prose that masterfully illuminates the inner lives...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781845235895
PRICE £10.99 (GBP)
PAGES 172

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