Ask Penguin Podcast Zadie Smith

Features

Ask Penguin: Why are generations at war with each other?

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Nine timeless quotes from Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

day in life

Interviews

A day in the life of a book editor with Simon Prosser

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Reading lists

Books to help cope with the heat

With the dawn of a new millennium about to break, the Nineties was a strange, floating decade of positivity, hope and something called the World Wide Web. 

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Books that defined the 2000s

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From sweaty to sultry: why fiction loves a heatwave

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20 books everyone should read in their forties

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Could ‘green noise’ be your secret weapon to reading – and writing – more?

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Children's reading lists

Best children’s books that celebrate difference

A collage of black and white photographs of Zadie Smith and Nick Laird and the cover of their new book, Weirdo.

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9 things we learned from Zadie Smith and Nick Laird’s Penguin Podcast episode

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In defence of the exclamation mark!

Reading Remedy: what to read to transport you to a good night out

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Reading Remedy: dealing with the end of a friendship

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Where to start reading Zadie Smith’s books

Reading Remedy: what to read if you're losing track of time

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Reading Remedy: what to read if you’re losing track of time

Zadie Smith: Adult friendships seem hopelessly diluted

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Zadie Smith: ‘Adult friendships seem hopelessly diluted’

Weirdo Goes Wild

One of the Observer's Best Children’s Books of 2024 
 
A warm and endearing story about the quiet power of being yourself from Zadie Smith, Nick Laird and Magenta Fox. 
 
Maud - a judo-suit wearing guinea pig and proud weirdo - is off into the wild, as is Kit, her owner. Both are slightly nervous about what they'll find in the great outdoors, but with a pinch of bravery - and a few Signature Moves - they'll make new friends and explore new worlds. 
 
Praise for Weirdo: 
"A sweet, tightly written tale about the benefits of not fitting in, cheered on by Magenta Fox's gorgeous illustrations" The Times’ Best Children’s Books for Summer 2021 
"As cockle-warming as a cuddle from a favourite pet, Weirdo ought to be a smash hit" Observer 
"it's delightful" the i

White Teeth

25th Anniversary Edition

A stunning new edition of one of the most iconic fictional debuts of all time, to mark the 25th anniversary of this modern classic - perfect for any Zadie Smith fan! 
 
‘What’s past is prologue…’ 
 
First published in the year 2000, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was one of the most celebrated novels of the new millennium. Adored by critics and readers alike, it remains a perennial bestseller, which still delights with the audacity of its scope and vision, its fresh-minted style, and the wit and warmth of its voice. 
 
Funny, generous and big-hearted, it deals – among many other things – with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle. 
 
A life affirming, riotous must-read of a book, it won the Guardian First Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread First Novel Award. 
 
‘Curl up with it, savour every sentence, then turn around and reread’ The Times 
 
‘The outstanding debut of the new millennium’ Observer

First published in the year 2000, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was one of the most celebrated novels of the new millennium. Adored by critics and readers alike, it remains a perennial bestseller, which still delights with the audacity of its scope and vision, its fresh-minted style, and the wit and warmth of its voice. 
 
Funny, generous and big-hearted, it deals – among many other things – with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle. 
 
A life affirming, riotous must-read of a book, it won the Guardian First Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread First Novel Award.

The Fraud

Book of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, Economist, Observer, The Spectator, Financial Times, Vogue, The Times, The Oldie, i Paper, The Standard, Washington Post, Independent, Daily Express 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 
ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 
LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024 
 
‘A writer at the peak of her powers’ The Telegraph 
 
Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story? 
 
In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher, recently returned from Australia, lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as star witness. Watching the proceedings, and with her own story to tell, is Eliza Touchet – cousin, housekeeper and perhaps more – to failing novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. 
 
From literary London to the Jamaica’s sugar-cane plantations, Zadie Smith weaves an enthralling story linking the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the comic and the tragic. 
 
‘It’s difficult to give any idea of how extraordinary this book is. One of the great historical novels, certainly. But has any historical novel ever combined such brilliantly researched and detailed history with such intensely imagined fiction?' Michael Frayn 
 
‘As always it is a pleasure to be in Zadie Smith’s mind . . . Dickens may be dead, but Smith, thankfully, is alive’ New York Times 
 
‘Zadie Smith’s Victorian-set masterpiece holds a mirror up to Britain . . . The Fraud is the genuine article’ Independent 
 
‘Smith’s dazzling historical novel combines deft writing and strenuous construction in a tale of literary London and the horrors of slavery’ Guardian 
 
Instant Sunday Times bestseller, September 2023

No one understands humans better. As this novel shows, there is no better guide to people and their bottomlessness than Smith herself

This was really delightful. 10/10. Zadie Smith is a genius

Brandon Taylor author of The Late Americans

A novel full of people, ideas, humour, feeling and something like moral truth – the stuff of life

Searingly original [and] virtuosic . . . the book masterfully depicts post-emancipation Britain as it ruptures along faultlines of class and race

The Fraud is unlike anything you’ll read this year: a charismatic, cerebral novel that asks us to consider the greatest fraud of all, that of one man claiming to hold the key to another’s freedom

Affecting and devastating . . . In typical Zadie style, the narrative structure and decade leaping require you to pay attention – but you’re heavily rewarded with the sheer breadth of the novel and its vividly painted characters

A wonderful meditation on truth and falsehood, and the boundaries between fact and fiction

A rich and sprawling novel with a terrific cast of characters, this is Smith at her best

The i Paper, 'Best new paperbacks for summer'

A big, rich saga, tumbling with characters and big issues (feminism, slavery, truth)

The Fraud is a complex mosaic of interweaving plots . . . The novel pulls off the trick of being both splendidly modern and authentically old and the characters are varied and entertaining

Ambitious in both style and subject matter, and bursting with Smith’s trademark sprightly dialogue, The Fraud is also very funny

Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story? 
 
In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher, recently returned from Australia, lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as star witness. Watching the proceedings, and with her own story to tell, is Eliza Touchet – cousin, housekeeper and perhaps more – to failing novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. 
 
From literary London to the Jamaica’s sugar-cane plantations, Zadie Smith weaves an enthralling story linking the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the comic and the tragic.

The Wife of Willesden

WINNER OF THE MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT AT THE CRITICS CIRCLE THEATRE AWARDS 2022 
 
'Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. 
She plays many roles round here. And never 
Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether 
Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife 
Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life 
Story to whoever has ears and eyes . . .' 
 
Zadie Smith's first time writing for the stage, The Wife of Willesden is a riotous twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's classic The Wife of Bath's Prologue, brought to glorious life on the Kilburn High Road. 
 
Commissioned to celebrate Brent's year as Borough of Culture 2020, The Wife of Willesden ran at the Kiln Theatre, London from November 2021 to January 2022.

'Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. 
She plays many roles round here. And never 
Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether 
Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife 
Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life 
Story to whoever has ears and eyes...' 
 
Zadie Smith's first play is a joyous re-imagining of Chaucer's classic, The Wife of Bath's Tale. As the crowd in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road stand up to share their stories, the Wife of Willesden is not afraid to bare it all...

Weirdo

Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit - and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality. 
 
The charming characters of Magenta Fox, whose work is evocative of Raymond Briggs and Janet Ahlberg, perfectly offset Zadie and Nick's warm, wry prose. 
 
Weirdo is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by two veteran writers, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.

Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit - and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality. 
 
The charming characters of Magenta Fox, whose work is evocative of Raymond Briggs and Janet Ahlberg, perfectly offset Zadie and Nick's warm, wry prose. 
 
Weirdo is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by two veteran writers, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.

Abridged Edition

Penguin Readers Level 7: White Teeth (ELT Graded Reader)

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online. 
 
Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. 
 
The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary. 
 
Visit the Penguin Readers website 
Exclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys. 
 
White Teeth is the story of three very different families who live close together in London in the 1980s and 1990s. The Bowdens are part-Jamaican; the Iqbals are from Bangladesh; and the Chalfens are white. The story looks at how people's pasts affect their lives now, and the lives and futures of their children.

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. 
 
White Teeth, a Level 7 Reader, is B2 in the CEFR framework. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing future perfect simple, mixed conditionals, past perfect continuous, mixed conditionals, more complex passive forms and modals for deduction in the past. 
 
White Teeth is the story of three very different families who live close together in London in the 1980s and 1990s. The Bowdens are part-Jamaican; the Iqbals are from Bangladesh; and the Chalfens white. The story looks at how people's pasts affect their lives now, and the lives and futures of their children.

Grand Union

A treasure trove of outstanding stories from 'the best writer of our generation' (Gary Shteyngart) - the perfect gift for the Zadie Smith fan in your life 
 
'She's already one of our best novelists and essayists, this reminds us that her short stories are right up there too' Observer 
 
'Sexy and hilarious. There is no moment in Grand Union when we are not entertained, or doubt that we are in the company of one of our best contemporary writers' Guardian 
 
'Brilliant. Another slam dunk. Street life, patois, music, food, clothes, hair: Smith has her finger on the pulse of life and the utter weirdness of whatever has just become normal. This is a book of and for the times, sobering in its clarity but bracingly witty and clever' Evening Standard 
 
'Smith's dialogue crackles with mordant wit. This dazzling collection of stories will leave you with plenty to think about' Independent 
 
Interleaving ten completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from the New Yorker and elsewhere, Zadie Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction. Moving exhilaratingly across genres and perspectives, from the historic to the vividly current to the slyly dystopian, Grand Union is a sharply alert and prescient collection about time and place, identity and rebirth, the persistent legacies that haunt our present selves and the uncanny futures that rush up to meet us.

Sexy and hilarious . . . There is no moment in Grand Union when we are not entertained,or doubt that we are in the company of one of our best contemporary writers.

Smart and bewitching, the modern world is refracted in ways that are both playful and rigorous, formally experimental and socially aware... Smith exercises her range without losing her wry, slightly cynical humour. Readers of all tastes will find something memorable in this collection

She's already one of our best novelists and essayists, this reminds us that her short stories are right up there too

The stories in Grand Union address both eternal existential queries and decidedly contemporary concerns.

this is a book of and for the times, sobering in its clarity but bracingly witty and clever

Smith's dialogue crackles with mordant wit . . . this dazzling collection of stories will leave you with plenty to think about.

Each story is a new surprise of literary genius that takes the reader on a short journey away from reality . . . A must-read for literary lovers everywhere

In these short stories she is miles and miles ahead, moving the finish line ever further as we are dazzled, knocked sideways by her craft . . . We see a master at work, exercising her vast talent with joy and vigour, reimagining old paradigms whilst maintaining the warmth and authenticity of her inimitable voice. For a writer who has seemingly done everything, it seems that Smith is just beginning

Grand Union seduces with language, acute observation, humour and the warmth of Smith's humanity. It's a startling, energising collection fom a writer unafraid to take risks

An exuberant volume that's bracing, thoughtful and frequently very funny

Tremendous comic writing and snappy dialogue

Smith offers sharp social commentary in this wry collection of stories that takes on the complications of the modern world

Tackles subjects including cancel culture, desire and race with Smith's trademark insight and lightness of touch

In the summer of 1959, an Antiguan immigrant in north-west London lives the last day of his life. 
 
A mother looks back on her early forays into matters of the human heart, considering the destructive nature of desire. 
 
A disgraced cop stands amid the broken shards of his life, unable to move forward into a future that holds no place for him. 
 
A teenager chases spectres through virtual reality, trailed by a little girl with a runny nose and no surviving family. 
 
We all take a much-needed break from this mess, on a package holiday where the pool's electric blue is endless, while political and environmental collapse happen far away to someone else. 
 
Zadie Smith presents a sharply alert and slyly prescient collection about time and place, identity and rebirth, the persistent legacies that haunt our present selves and the uncanny futures that rush up to meet us.

Six Essays

Intimations

One of Time Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 and an FT Best Book of the Year 
 
Thought-provoking and deeply consoling, a perfectly distilled set of essays on the strangest year many of us have experienced, from one of our wisest and most humane thinkers 
 
'As well as offering a new guide to living in a wild, messy and unfair world, Smith provides a reminder that we can use this crisis to imagine a better one' Evening Standard 
 
Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of essays on the experience of lockdown, by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time 
 
From the critically acclaimed author of Feel Free, Swing Time, White Teeth and many more 
 
'There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those - the year isn't half-way done. What I've tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are above all personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.' 
 
Crafted with the sharp intelligence, wit and style that have won Zadie Smith millions of fans, and suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these unprecedented times, Intimations is a vital work of art, a gesture of connection and an act of love - an essential book in extraordinary times. 
 
'Zadie Smith is a marvel - her soulfulness, her sensitivity, her ability to write . . . She doesn't try to make grand statements but just leaves you with the sense that you're in the company of someone who can help you feel things deeply' Tom Hollander in the Guardian

As well as offering a new guide to living in a wild, messy and unfair world, Smith provides a reminder that we can use this crisis to imagine a better one

Smith has the gift that she attributed to Nabokov, years ago, of making any reader of her work feel they are engaged in a creative act, discoveringthe felicities of her writing.

There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those. Written in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, as the global situation changed almost hourly, Intimations is a series of six deeply personal essays responding to the ever-evolving experience of lockdown. Crafted with Zadie's trademark intelligence, wit and style but also suffused with a striking intimacy and tenderness, these essays attempt to organize the feelings and thoughts that the events of 2020 so far have provoked. A vital work of art, a gesture of connection and an act of love, Intimations is an essential book in extraordinary times.

On Beauty

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 
 
From the acclaimed author of Swing Time, White Teeth and Grand Union, discover a brilliantly funny and deeply moving story about love and family 
 
Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? 
 
Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family. 
 
'Ambitious, hugely impressive, beautifully observed' Guardian

The tale of a mixed-race British American family in conflict with another family of opposing sensibilities. As with all Smith's work, it's smart, funny and a masterclass in the complexities of identity

Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? 
 
Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

Essays

Feel Free

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM 2019 
 
From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Changing My Mind and Swing Time - discover a second unmissable collection of essays from Zadie Smith 
 
'Generous, courageous, and tough-minded... [A] classic English essayist in the vein of Orwell, Woolf and Angela Carter' Financial Times 
 
'Engrossing, astute... Should you read this brilliant book? Absolutely' Independent 
 
'Generous and curious' Evening Standard 
 
'Brilliant, lively and frequently hilarious... She's one of the brightest minds in English literature today' NPR 
 
No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for the unstoppable Zadie Smith. From social media to the environment, from Jay-Z to Karl Ove Knausgaard, she has boundless curiosity and the boundless wit to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment, dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion. 
 
This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.

A writer so insistent on the possibility of imaginative connection, so generous and curious with regard to her readers

Brilliant...[Smith's] new book is lively, intelligent and frequently hilarious, and proves that she's one of the brightest minds in English literature today

Refreshingly insightful on any number of topics, from Martin Buber to Justin Bieber...Reviewing a book by her countryman Geoff Dyer, [Smith] writes that she is most struck by 'his tone. Its simplicity, its classlessness, its accessibility and yet its erudition-the combination is a trick few British writers ever pull off.' Without question, Smith is one of them

Brims with a wide-ranging enthusiasm...[Smith's] open-mindedness gives the whole of Feel Free a lively, game-for-anything spirit...Enchanting

Charmingly digressive...Smith sets an unpretentious tone...As the pages pass, there's a palpable absence of self-certainty. In its place are ample reserves of curiosity and empathy

The joy of this collection is Smith's straightforward phrasing, often summing up her thesis with a single thoughtful sentence. Her words are not overwritten; they do not distract from her purpose, nor are they a barrier to her argument; they are welcoming. I found myself re-reading the brightest of these sentences over and again, marveling at her humor and her brevity

The strongest essays showcase Smith's skills as an art, literary and cultural critic...One of the pleasures of reading Feel Free is in savoring Smith's joy when she writes about formative cultural experiences. As with any book of opinions, Feel Free makes claims one might dispute...But a collection of essays that doesn't prompt disagreements would be a dull book, and Feel Free is anything but dull

Getting In and Out' is the kind of essay that sheds light on a whole career, and it would justify this collection even if Feel Free didn't include a handful of more perfectly crafted pieces of prose

For years, [Smith] has been one of the most important literary journalists we have. This is why

Smith writes [ . . . ] with such infectious zeal and engaging accessibility that it makes you want to turn up at her house and demand tutoring

Publisher's Description: Dazzlingly insightful, explosively funny and ever-timely, essential writer Zadie Smith is back with a second unmissable collection of essays, following up her critically acclaimed collection, Changing My Mind

It's good to know that, while my body rusts, I can keep my mind stretched and nimble by reading Zadie Smith

A preturnaturally gifted writer with a voice that's street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time

No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for Zadie Smith's insatiable curiosity. From social media to the environment, Tarantino to Jay-Z to Knausgaard, she has endless fascination and the boundless wit, insight and wisdom to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment: dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion. 
 
This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.

LONGLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017

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

Publisher's description. Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is Zadie Smith's most ambitious novel yet: a story about friendship and music and true identity, how they shape us and how we can survive them. Moving from north-west London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.

Endlessly satisfying... [Zadie Smith] has never written better. Pitch-perfect, masterful and sophisticated

Zadie Smith is the best writer of our generation, and Swing Time is her best book to date. As the title promises, the novel swings and pulsates with life, filled with emotion, excited by intellect and haunted by sadness. What a miracle that literature can still do things other forms of art cannot. What a miracle that Zadie Smith is among us, writing.

Clever, funny, confident and kind. Her gift for language is a pleasure and her character shines through

[Smith] packs more intelligence, humour and sheer energy into any given scene than anyone else of her generation

Zadie Smith's finest novel. Extraordinary, virtuosic... [It] does what only literature can and what only great literature will: forces us to assess the very vocabulary with which we speak of human experience

Zadie Smith at her finest... [An] unflinching portrait of friendship... [A] triumph

Ingenious, inspired... Zadie Smith's new novel is very good indeed

Shrewd observation and sly satire, profundity and genuine purpose, as well as some of the most heart-stoppingly lyrical writing of her career

A powerful story of lives marred by secrets, unfulfilled potential, the unjustness of the world...and the dances people do to rise above it all

A sweeping meditation on race and identity... [Smith's] most ambitious work yet

Books of the Year 
 
'Virtuosic' Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement 
 
'Clever, funny, confident and kind' Sarah Sands, Evening Standard 
 
'Perfect' Taiye Selasi, Observer 
 
'Better than ever' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Her most engaging book so far' Peter Kemp, Times Literary Supplement 
 
'Pitch-perfect, masterful' Duncan White, Telegraph

Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and true identity, how they shape us and how we can survive them. Moving from north-west London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time. 
 
Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly 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...

From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Swing Time, White Teeth and On Beauty - a masterful and intimate novel of modern London life 
 
'A triumph. Every sentence sings' Guardian 
 
'Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Smith's most satisfying novel. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy. She's up there with the best around' Evening Standard 
 
Zadie Smith's brilliant tragicomic NW follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel. Funny, poignant and vividly contemporary, NW is as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

Zadie Smith's brilliant tragi-comic NW follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel. A portrait of modern urban life, NW is funny, sad and urgent - as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

Stop What You're Doing And Read This!

A mission statement about the transformative power of reading; about the way it inspires us, the tangible impact it can have on our wellbeing, the importance it holds for us now and will continue to hold in the future.

A strong argument for making "reading more" one of your new Year's Resolutions

Not having enough time to read is a common complaint. But as this collection of essays by ten committed bibliophiles attempts to show, reading should be an activity as regular as brushing your teeth

Ebullient... Subtle... Inspiring and impassioned... This advocacy for intense reading is punchy and sharp

A delightful collection of essays from luminaries of the book world... Some are personal, some political, but all are passionate

In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams. 
 
Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book? 
 
People have always needed stories. We need literature - novels, poetry - because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provide companionship when we are lonely or peacefulness in the midst of an overcrowded daily life. Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it. 
 
In the ten essays in this book some of our finest authors and passionate advocates from the worlds of science, publishing, technology and social enterprise tell us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken forgranted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives. In any 24 hours there are so many demands on your time and attention - make books one of them. 
 
Carmen Callil Tim Parks 
Nicholas Carr Michael Rosen 
Jane Davis Zadie Smith 
Mark Haddon Jeanette Winterson 
Blake Morrison Dr Maryanne Wolf &amp; Dr Mirit Barzillai

Occasional Essays

Changing My Mind

A far-ranging, invigorating and irrepressible collection of essays on literature, cinema, art - and everything in between - from the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Feel Free and Swing Time 
 
'Alarmingly good' Metro 
 
'Striding with open hearted zest and eloquence between fiction (from EM Forster to David Foster Wallace) and travel, movies and comedy, family and community in a self-portrait that charts the evolution of a formidable talent' Independent 
 
'Supremely good. Smith writes with such infectious zeal and engaging accessibility that it makes you want to turn up at her house and demand tutoring' Dazed 
 
'Brilliant' Vogue

How did George Eliot's love life affect her prose? Why did Kafka write at three in the morning? In what ways is Barack Obama like Eliza Doolittle? Can you be over-dressed for the Oscars? What is Italian Feminism? If Roland Barthes killed the Author, can Nabokov revive him? What does 'soulful' mean? Is Date Movie the worst film ever made? 
 
A collection of essays that brims over with personality and warmth, Changing My Mind is journalism at its most expansive, intelligent and funny - a gift to readers and writers both. Within its covers an essay is more than a column of opinions: it's a space in which to think freely.

The Autograph Man

Zadie Smith's deeply funny, subversive and splendidly entertaining The Autograph Man is a whirlwind tour of celebrity and our fame-obsessed times. 
 
Following one Alex-Li Tandem - a twenty-something, Chinese-Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion - it takes in London and New York, love and death, fathers and sons, as Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer to his heart's desire. Exposing our misconceptions about our idols - about ourselves - Zadie Smith delivers in The Autograph Man a brilliant, unforgettable tale about who we are and what we really want to be. 
 
'A glorious concoction written by our most beguiling and original prose-wizard' Independent on Sunday 
 
'A brilliant comedy with a tantalising throb of mystic philosophy underneath' Philip Hensher, Books of the Year, Spectator 
 
'A pleasure from the first page to the last' Evening Standard 
 
'Intellectually agile ... ecstatic inventiveness' Time 
 
'A classic' Spectator 
 
'Genuinely funny and entertaining' Guardian 
 
'Vibrant, highly imaginative' Jewish Chronicle 
 
'Full of irony, humour, the search for love and the fear of death ... a touching, thoughtful, deeply felt rite-of-passage novel' Sunday Telegraph 
 
Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. Her debut novel, White Teeth, won the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Guardian First Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and the Commonwealth Writers' First Book Prize, and was included in TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Her second novel, On Beauty, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has written two further novels, The Autograph Man and NW, a collection of essays Changing My Mind, and also edited short story anthology The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was chosen by Granta as one of its twenty best young British novelists in 2003, and as well as to Granta has contributed writing to the New Yorker and the Guardian. 
 
Zadie Smith's new novel, NW, is available from September 2012.

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man, read by Henry Goodman. 
 
Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, it is his business to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, occasionally fake them, and all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. 
 
The Autograph Man is a deeply funny, existential tour around the hollow things of modernity - celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated or sold.

The award winnng White Teeth has sold over 800,000 copies in paperback. The Autograph Man has sold 90,000 copies in hardback to date.

From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Swing Time, White Teeth and On Beauty 
 
'A pleasure from the first page to the last' Evening Standard 
 
'A glorious concoction by our most beguiling and original prose-wizard' Independent on Sunday 
 
'Full of humour, the search for love and the fear of death... A touching, thoughtful, deeply felt rite-of-passage novel' Sunday Telegraph 
 
The Autograph Man follows one Alex-Li Tandem: a twenty-something Chinese-Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion. From London to New York, love to death, fathers to sons, Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer to his heart's desire. Exposing our misconceptions about our idols - about ourselves - Zadie Smith delivers a brilliant, unforgettable tale about who we are and what we really want to be.

"The novel is a pleasure from the first page to the last" David Sexton, EVENING STANDARD 
 
Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, it is his business to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them,occasionally fake them, and all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH MAN is a deeply funny, existential tour around the hollow things of modernity -- celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated or sold.

Zadie Smith

Eclectic in her tastes, centrifugal in her style, Smith as an essayist loves to stretch her frame

It’s hard to think of a living essayist who is better company on the page — walking you through her thoughts, curious about everything and everyone, including (unusually) the reader

In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects which have captured her attention in recent years. 
 
She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tár, and to Glastonbury to witness the ascendance of Stormzy. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North West London and invites us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic – and the meaning of ‘the commons’ in all our lives. 
 
Throughout this thrilling collection, Zadie Smith shows us once again her unrivalled ability to think through critically and humanely some of the most urgent preoccupations and tendencies of our troubled times.