How to Be Both
E321081
How to Be Both is an innovative, genre-blending novel by Ali Smith that intertwines two narratives across time and can be read in multiple orders, exploring themes of art, grief, and identity.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| How to Be Both canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3043746 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: How to Be Both Context triple: [Ali Smith, notableWork, How to Be Both]
-
A.
How to Be Good
How to Be Good is a comic novel by British author Nick Hornby that explores morality, marriage, and midlife crisis through the perspective of a disillusioned doctor.
-
B.
Lean In
Lean In is a bestselling 2013 book by Sheryl Sandberg that encourages women to pursue their ambitions and advocates for gender equality in the workplace and leadership.
-
C.
The Splendid Things We Planned
The Splendid Things We Planned is a memoir by biographer Blake Bailey that recounts his troubled relationship with his brother and their dysfunctional family.
-
D.
How to Love
"How to Love" is a melodic, introspective hip-hop ballad by Lil Wayne that explores vulnerability, heartbreak, and the struggle to accept love.
-
E.
The Woman I Am
The Woman I Am is a 1992 R&B and soul album by Chaka Khan that showcases her powerful vocals through a blend of contemporary production and classic funk-infused grooves.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: How to Be Both Target entity description: How to Be Both is an innovative, genre-blending novel by Ali Smith that intertwines two narratives across time and can be read in multiple orders, exploring themes of art, grief, and identity.
-
A.
How to Be Good
How to Be Good is a comic novel by British author Nick Hornby that explores morality, marriage, and midlife crisis through the perspective of a disillusioned doctor.
-
B.
Lean In
Lean In is a bestselling 2013 book by Sheryl Sandberg that encourages women to pursue their ambitions and advocates for gender equality in the workplace and leadership.
-
C.
The Splendid Things We Planned
The Splendid Things We Planned is a memoir by biographer Blake Bailey that recounts his troubled relationship with his brother and their dysfunctional family.
-
D.
How to Love
"How to Love" is a melodic, introspective hip-hop ballad by Lil Wayne that explores vulnerability, heartbreak, and the struggle to accept love.
-
E.
The Woman I Am
The Woman I Am is a 1992 R&B and soul album by Chaka Khan that showcases her powerful vocals through a blend of contemporary production and classic funk-infused grooves.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| author | Ali Smith ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Orange Prize for Fiction
ⓘ
surface form:
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist
Whitbread Novel Award ⓘ
surface form:
Costa Book Awards Novel Award
Whitbread Book of the Year ⓘ
surface form:
Costa Book of the Year
Goldsmiths Prize ⓘ Man Booker Prize shortlist ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| coverArtist | Peter Mendelsund ⓘ |
| criticalReception | widely acclaimed ⓘ |
| format | print ⓘ |
| genre |
LGBT literature
ⓘ
experimental fiction ⓘ novel ⓘ postmodern literature ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780241146828 ⓘ |
| hasPart |
story of Francesco del Cossa
ⓘ
story of George ⓘ |
| hasTranslation | multiple languages ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 21st-century literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Francesco del Cossa
ⓘ
George ⓘ |
| mediaType | book ⓘ |
| narrativeDevice |
intertwined timelines
ⓘ
multiple reading orders ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure |
dual narrative
ⓘ
nonlinear narrative ⓘ |
| notableFor |
genre-blending form
ⓘ
innovative structure ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| partOf | contemporary British literature ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2014 ⓘ |
| publisher | Hamish Hamilton ⓘ |
| setting |
Renaissance Italy
ⓘ
contemporary England ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
Renaissance painting
ⓘ
mother–daughter relationship ⓘ |
| theme |
art
ⓘ
gender ⓘ grief ⓘ identity ⓘ memory ⓘ perception ⓘ sexuality ⓘ time ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: How to Be Both Description of subject: How to Be Both is an innovative, genre-blending novel by Ali Smith that intertwines two narratives across time and can be read in multiple orders, exploring themes of art, grief, and identity.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.