The Guest Who Throws a Family into Crisis ; A Mysterious Young Woman Wreaks Havoc on the Lives of the Unsuspecting Smarts

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Ben Franklin once quipped that visitors, like fish, stink after three days. He'd obviously never met Amber, the barefoot 30- something at the center of Ali Smith's novel The Accidental.

Amber turns up one day at the home where the Smarts are enduring their vacation, announcing, "Sorry I'm late. I'm Amber. Car broke down."

Michael, an English professor, assumes she's come to interview his wife, Eve, a bestselling author of "autobiotruefictinterviews." Eve assumes that Amber is the latest in Michael's long string of student-conquests. Astrid, 12, who's so bored that she's been filming dawns, is instantly fascinated. And Magnus, 17, who's consumed with guilt for his …