Podcasts

The Penguin Podcast: Zadie Smith on Swing Time

Zadie Smith joins David Baddiel in the Penguin studio to talk about her latest novel, Swing Time.

14 April 2016

Zadie brings along objects including a carved wooden head, a sequinned glove and a book on Fred Astaire as she talks dancing, motherhood and the importance of knowing your roots.

'I thought it would be interesting to have a narrator who wasn't trying to present anything to anyone, who was just like an open eye, and it's everybody else you see but you don't really see her very clearly'.

Zadie Smith and David Baddiel

Zadie Smith and presenter David Baddiel

GET ON ITUNES

GET ON ACAST

GET ON AUDIOBOOM

Swing Time

  • Swing Time

  • LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2017

    'Smith's finest. Extraordinary, truly marvellous' Observer

    A dazzlingly exuberant novel moving from north west London to West Africa, from the critically acclaimed author of White Teeth, On Beauty and Grand Union

    Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, black bodies and black music, what it means to belong, what it means to be free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten either.

    Bursting with energy, rhythm and movement, Swing Time is Zadie Smith's most ambitious novel yet. It is a story about music and identity, race and class, those who follow the dance and those who lead it . . .

    'Superb' Financial Times 'Breathtaking' TLS 'Pitch-perfect' Daily Telegraph

    'There is still no better chronicler of the modern British family than Zadie Smith' Telegraph

  • Buy the book

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, and a collection of essays, Changing My Mind, and editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Zadie Smith

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/november/Main-Festive-Scenes..jpg

Recommendations

The best festive scenes in literature

From Zadie Smith to Irvine Welsh, get in the mood for Christmas with these memorable yuletide moments.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/november/Main-Exclamation-Mark-1800x1200.jpg

Features

In defence of the exclamation mark! Literature's most-snubbed punctuation

Scott Fitzgerald ruled them out, Virginia Woolf adored them. In the internet era, is it fair to still snub the 'fun uncle' of grammar?
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/july/reading-remediesmain-image-1800x1200.jpg

Features

Reading Remedy: what to read if you're yearning for a big night out

Party season isn't looking too good this year. Here’s what you can read instead to travel to a world of fun, dancefloors and lowered inhibitions.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.