It has taken conviction to right the wrongs. It will take courage to learn how to live again. ‘An all-round triumph.’ John Hudspith Winner of ‘The Selfies’ Best Independent Fiction Author Award at London Book Fair 2019 For the families of the victims of the St Botolph and Old Billingsgate disaster, the undoing of a miscarriage of justice should be a cause for rejoicing. For more than thirteen … should be a cause for rejoicing. For more than thirteen years, the search for truth has eaten up everything. Marriages, families, health, careers and finances.
Finally, the coroner has ruled that the crowd did not contribute to their own deaths. Finally, now that lies have been unravelled and hypocrisies exposed, they can all get back to their lives.
If only it were that simple.
Tapping into the issues of the day, Davis delivers a highly charged work of fiction, a compelling testament to the human condition and the healing power of art. Written with immediacy, style and an overwhelming sense of empathy, Smash all the Windows will be enjoyed by readers of How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall and How to be Both by Ali Smith.
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Intense, brilliant ‘what would I do?’ roller-coaster
Layer by layer, we meet the people affected by a horrific, fatal disaster in a London underground station. We know from the start of both the disaster and the final court verdict, clearing the victims of ‘mob behaviour’ so the suspense comes from puzzling out motives, relationships and consequences. We get close to several very different characters and these people are so real that I am still worrying about how their lives will continue. I’m especially concerned for Eric, whose passion for justice led to this long-awaited verdict, but also, ironically, lost him his legal career. How true that too much passion causes damage, and it’s the cool brains that can sustain these long legal fights to the end. Thank goodness for the Sorrels of this world.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about tragic loss but, beyond the morbid fascination that draws us to read about accidents, there are moments of warmth, humanity and even heroism. What will stay in my mind is the way people in this story help each other, even in a crowd, even at risk of their own lives. How wonderful and important to have something in opposition to mob rule – I think Jules, the widowed French artist who shapes an exhibition from the survivors’ loss, might call it ‘esprit de foule’ and challenge the negative association.
This is a book you want to talk about and I can see why it’s being taken up by reading groups (encouraged by the author’s suggestions for discussion questions) I buy every book Jane Davis writes and have never been disappointed. I love the way she combines Annie Proulx’s meticulous use of factual detail with Jodi Picoult’s immersion in moral dilemmas. She makes me wonder what I would do and she helps me understand other people.
I bought this book quite by chance and am so glad I did. My read of the year. Wonderful characters, tragic story and beautifully written. Highly recommended
For the first time in my reading life, I finished a book, turned back to page one and started reading it again. The story and characters so compelling, the story telling so complex, complete, and often subtle—I simply couldn’t just move on to another book.
But the more urgent need for the immediate reread came from the emotions evoked.
Tragedies happen all the time. People are killed—floods, fires, airplane crashes, auto accidents, tsunamis….
They happen far away to people we don’t know. We, on the other hand, are tucked away in our safe little corner of the world, cocooned by family and friends, smug in our security, subconsciously believing “that will never happen to us.”
Focusing on a few of the individuals connected to a Tube accident in London blamed on the dead, Davis shows the harshness of the impact on the families of the dead and the burden of sorrow they carry that lasts forever. Davis shakes us out of our complacency and rightly so.
What inspired the novel?
Davis says: The novel began with outrage. I was infuriated by the press’s reaction to the outcome of the second Hillsborough inquest. For those who don’t know about Hillsborough, a crush occurred during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, killing 96 fans. A single lie was told about the cause of the disaster: In that moment, Liverpool fans became scapegoats.” Read more HERE
If you like people watching, then you will love this latest book from Jane Davis.
Her characters are so real because she captures their idiosyncrasies, their values and the dynamics of their relationships with one another.
It’s a tragic story, and one which you could so easily have been in yourself, but don’t let that put you off. It’s powerful, thought provoking, soul searching and memorable.
Without giving too much away, loved ones are lost, dreams are smashed and people want something or someone to blame. Some people pull through and pull together, others are lost. But there is always hope.
A brilliant book. A definite must read.
I’ve read and enjoyed all of Jane Davis’ novels. So when I saw this was due out, I pre-ordered and received my hard copy ahead of formal publication date. I love this book so much I ordered a further 3 copies for birthday gifts. As usual with a Jane Davis novel, this tells a story, and does so from a number of viewpoints. The story in Smash All The Windows is the journey of various people affected – directly and indirectly – by a disaster; the kind of disaster most of us can barely imagine being touched by.
At times this made me laugh, but mostly it made me think; it felt particularly relevant given the recent spate of UK events that occurred or were reported over on the past few years – I’ve been very fortunate and never been personally impacted by loss of anyone close, so when something such as Grenfell happens, I can only imagine.
Smash All The Windows did an exceptional job of helping me do this. It manages to be heartfelt, heartbreaking (there were tears) as well as incredibly uplifting. I really don’t have the words to say how affecting and relevant and human this novel is. It’s a brilliantly observed and beautifully written tale of the journey from tragedy to, no not resolution or closure; but peace and acceptance.
Every character is clearly, convincingly, sympathetically portrayed. The tragedy is a constant backdrop, but despite it being what has come to define each of the characters, it doesn’t (I have no idea how this was possible to achieve) dominate over the personalities. Some of them I liked more than others, some I admired and most I loved. Eric (with the support of the indomitable Sorrel) digging, researching and some more digging to develop the ‘sequence’ that results in the final inquest. Donovan getting through each day as best he can, knowing that he is marked by all who know him. Gina barely coping as Tamsin supports her, losing her childhood in the process. Maggie whose starling is on the cover and Jules, an artist who creates beauty and meaning from detritus. The concept of the final exhibition is proper genius, worthy of the Tate Modern.
I cannot recommend Smash All The Windows highly enough.
I have read and enjoyed a couple of Jane Davis’s books but she has surpassed herself with this one. Ambitious in scope, it takes a large ensemble cast through the traumatic events and fall-out of a major public disaster. To take on a story as all-encompassing as this is crazy enough, but to do so while chronicling the experience of so many diverse individuals not just through the tragedy but the fourteen-year aftermath. Yet Davis pulls it off.
We live with the relatives as they seek justice after their dead family members have their reputations besmirched by the court. For this terrible accident on the escalator of a London tube has Hillsbrorough-style consequences – 58 dead, unfairly accused of being the architects of their own fate.
What is brilliant about this book is not just that it takes us through the tragedy and its consequences, enabling us to live it with the characters – but that it goes so much further. The culmination of the book – a show at Tate Modern curated by the French artist who lost his own wife in the tragedy – is a real tour de force. Having seen how the disaster and the contrary verdicts of both inquest and civil case have impacted the lives of these families, we get to experience this exhibition with them, and through the nature of the exhibits to understand them and their loved ones better.
Jane Davis writes beautifully – but this book is so much more than its beautiful prose – it takes us right under the skin of a series of highly memorable characters so by the end of the book have become people we care deeply about. A very rare feat indeed, aided by her insightful and compassionate observation of human life. She is able to form a rich and intricate tapestry from the tiniest details.
Read this book! It’s superb.
This is a stunning book, written by an author so skilled at both the big and little, the near and far, the personal and the collective, that you’ll walk away from the conclusion feeling as if you’ve truly been on a journey, an emotional, visceral, gut-wrenching, hope-instilling journey with a very human set of characters.
I’ve read and enjoyed other books of Jane Davis and have always found her to be an excellent writer, one with an ability to set time, place, and character with such detail and specificity that her work is memorable. But perhaps her most admirable, enduring trait is the sheer originality of her themes, and the literary, almost poetic, unfolding of her narratives.
In Smash All the Windows, the reader is immediately thrown into a mix of families and individuals who’ve experienced a tremendous tragedy: the death of their loved ones via a disaster in a London subway, one in which fifty-eight people are crushed to death when an overcrowded escalator malfunctions during the height of a pre-holiday rush hour. The tentacles of impact, grief, loss, and despair emanating from this one catastrophe are pervasive and overwhelming, and the story begins by introducing us to the handful of characters Davis chooses to follow, back and forth through time, from before and after the event, to pull apart and explore the whys and hows; the painful, searing experiences of each, whether those on the escalator or those mourning the ones who were.
I found some readerly organization was required to keep the characters straight at the beginning; I had to go back a number of times to recalibrate who was who, which was essential, given the tangential importance of each character’s story, but once that settled in, the varied and poignant process of each survivor as they arched from devastation to, hopefully, some form of—if not acceptance—existential survival, is powerful.
There are two effective devices incorporated in developing the story: 1.) The contemporary inquest into who was at fault for this accident, a storyline that involves a passionate, obsessive attorney and his somewhat beleaguered partner and girlfriend, and 2.) The evolution of an art exhibit organized by one of the victim’s husbands, now an artist of note, intended to honor and memorialize the victims and their families.
In the first, we are immersed in viewing the tragedy from all sides and from every perspective; in the second, we witness slow, tender, painful moments of healing brought about by the sensitive, selective gathering of pieces of the victims’ lives into a powerful, moving art installation. Climbing inside both narratives—one tortuous and terrifying; the other tentative but uplifting—makes for a beautiful juxtaposition. Davis never fails to follow both with authenticity and beautifully articulated observation.
This is a compelling, memorable read; highly recommended. And once you’re done with this book, if you haven’t yet, go pick up some of Jane’s other work. She won’t disappoint.