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Zadie Smith

    October 25, 1975
    Zadie Smith
    Feel Free : essays
    Intimations
    The Patrick Melrose novels
    Intimations : six essays
    Penguin Readers Level 7 White Teeth
    Recitatif
    • 2024

      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 ExpressSHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023'A writer at the peak of her powers' The TelegraphTruth 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

      The Fraud: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller
    • 2023

      Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story? Zadie Smith returns with her first historical novel.It is 1873. Mrs Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper - and cousin by marriage - of a once famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.Andrew Bogle meanwhile grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realise. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.The 'Tichborne Trial' captivates Mrs Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task...Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of 'other people.'PRAISE FOR ZADIE SMITH:'A writer of remarkable wit and originality' Observer'[Smith] packs more intelligence, humour and sheer energy into any given scene than anyone else of her generation' Sunday Telegraph'A brilliant writer' A M Homes'She's a genius' Dolly Alderton'Zadie Smith is a national treasure' James Gleick'A tremendous talent . . . Smith is simply wonderful' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

      The Fraud
    • 2022

      Recitatif

      • 64 pages
      • 3 hours of reading
      4.4(1728)Add rating

      In this 1983 short story--the only short story Morrison ever wrote--we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them. Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

      Recitatif
    • 2021

      The Wife of Willesden

      • 64 pages
      • 3 hours of reading
      3.7(647)Add rating

      '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...

      The Wife of Willesden
    • 2021

      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.

      Penguin Readers Level 7 White Teeth
    • 2020

      Intimations : six essays

      • 80 pages
      • 3 hours of reading
      4.1(2421)Add rating

      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.

      Intimations : six essays
    • 2020

      Intimations

      Six Essays

      • 112 pages
      • 4 hours of reading
      4.0(20723)Add rating

      The collection of essays offers a poignant critique of America's social systems, blending personal experiences with political commentary. Through sharp observations, the author captures the complexities of contemporary issues, providing clarity on the peculiarities of the current moment. This powerful indictment resonates with readers, making it a significant addition to the discourse on societal challenges.

      Intimations
    • 2019

      Grand Union: Stories

      • 245 pages
      • 9 hours of reading
      3.3(8058)Add rating

      Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal! A dazzling collection of short fiction Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and her inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. Interleaving eleven completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from The New Yorker and elsewhere, 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. Nothing is off limits, and everything—when captured by Smith’s brilliant gaze—feels fresh and relevant. Perfectly paced and utterly original, Grand Union highlights the wonders Zadie Smith can do.

      Grand Union: Stories
    • 2019

      Grand Union

      Stories

      • 256 pages
      • 9 hours of reading
      3.2(145)Add rating

      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 ways in which desire is always an act of negotiation, destruction, and self-invention. 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 teenage scion of the technocratic elite chases spectres through a premium 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 ceaselessly replenished, while political and environmental collapse happen far away, to someone else. Interleaving ten completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from the New Yorker and elsewhere, 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.

      Grand Union