Love and life are the two conceptual poles of Ali Smith’s work—the main theme of the novel “How.” Love. All-consuming and unreturned, pushing a person toward madness. What is it like to realize that you’re a “nothing” to someone who was everything to you? What can you do after finding that out—and how do you go on living afterward? But that’s only one side. And on the other… In any case, the reader will judge.