Green and Pleasant Land

The narrator of Ali Smith’s new novel, Gliff, is a thirteen-year-old named Briar. Various critics have thought Briar to be either male, female, or non-binary, and some have declined the question and referred to Briar as “he or she.” This confusion is intended by Smith. In any case, Briar and a younger sister named Rose live somewhere in the future, seemingly Britain, under totalitarian arrangements, though with only intermittent adult supervision because they are separated from their mother and her boyfriend, Leif. Their brave mother blew the whistle on her employer, a weedkiller company, and now Briar and Rose, evicted from their home, are “unverifiables,” people with no records who are nonetheless watched and, as much as possible, controlled. They give false names and watch for where the cameras and microphones are; smart phones and watches are now more blatantly instruments of volunteered surveillance, and some civilians are vigilantes.