How to Be Both

Ali Smith

A genre-bending literary novel told in two interlinked halves: one follows George, a grieving teenager in contemporary Cambridge mourning her mother, and the other follows the voice of a real Renaissance painter, Francesco del Cossa, who lived disguised as a man. Depending on the printed edition, the reader encounters either half first, and the two stories echo each other through themes of art, gender, loss, and perception. It is a literary, prize-winning work rather than a genre romance.