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NPR's Book of the Day

In Ali Smith's 'Gliff,' two children flee capture in an authoritarian near-future

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 β€’ 672 Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Ali Smith's Gliff, two children wake up to find that someone has painted a red line around their home. They've been marked "unverifiable" and they're at risk of being captured. The dystopian near-future in which they live is a world of government surveillance and environmental destruction – and one without libraries. In today's episode, Smith talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the authoritarian themes in her novel. They discuss what makes authoritarianism feel attractive and safe, Smith's former career as an advertising copywriter, and the connection between slogans and tribalism.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Ollie Smith's new book, Gliff,

0:06.7

is a dystopian-y-a novel set in an authoritarian regime. She spends the first half of this interview

0:13.2

with NPR Scott Simon talking about that, how easy it is to actually be seduced by authoritarianism.

0:25.3

But then in the second half, they start talking about Smith's previous career as an advertising copywriter.

0:26.2

And she says something about how slogans work because they connect to something tribal inside

0:32.1

all of us, which makes me wonder if she learned a thing or two about authoritarianism from her time in

0:38.2

advertising.

0:39.2

That's ahead.

0:40.7

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

0:45.5

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and

0:51.5

methods.

0:52.1

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

0:55.8

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

0:59.7

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:05.3

Brian, their sister Rose, are unverifiable.

1:09.9

Red Line is painted around their house after their mother leaves on a family

1:13.3

emergency, but they find a place in which to squat where the horses that graze in an adjacent

1:20.7

field lift their eyes and hearts to someplace else. Gliff is the name they give a horse and is the

1:27.0

title of a new novel from

1:28.3

Ali Smith, the novelist and playwright.

1:31.3

Won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for her novel summer, and she is sometimes

1:35.9

called Scotland's Nobel laureate in Waiting.

...

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