Zadie Smith

"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...

On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon. Archie--working-class, ordinary, a failed marriage under his belt--is calling it quits, the deciding factor being the flip of a 20-pence coin. When the owner of a nearby halal butcher shop (annoyed that Archie's car is blocking his delivery area) comes out and bangs on the window, he gives Archie...

"A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays. In this eagerly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that 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...

"[These essays] reflect a lively, unselfconscious, rigorous, erudite, and earnestly open mind that's busy refining its view of life, literature, and a great deal in between." —Los Angeles Times
Split into five sections—Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering—Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both personal and cultural. This engaging collection of essays, some...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Swing Time and one of the most revered writers of her generation comes an "intelligent ... exquisitely clever [novel] about fame, mortality, and the triumph of image over reality” (The Boston Globe).

Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. His business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them—all to give the people...

"In her stage-writing debut, celebrated novelist and essayist Zadie Smith brings to life a comedic and cutting twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's classic The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Willesden follows Alvita, a Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-50s, as she tells her life story to a band of strangers in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road. Wearing fake gold chains, dressed in knock-off designer clothes, and speaking in a...

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. Celebrating the quiet power of being different, The Surprise is the children's debut from acclaimed authors Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, with art from exciting newcomer Magenta Fox. Together...

Zadie Smiths tragikomischer Roman London NW erzählt von vier Londoner:innen - Leah, Natalie, Felix und Nathan -, die zwar den sozialen Wohnungsbau ihrer Kindheit verlassen haben, doch bis zum heutigen Tag im Londoner Nordwesten leben, dem eigentlichen Zentrum der Stadt. Sie wachsen in einer Hochhaussiedlung auf, wie es sie in jeder Großstadt gibt - immer das Ziel vor Augen, diese eines Tages zu verlassen und etwas Größeres, Besseres aus ihrem...

This inspirational book juxtaposes quotations, one to a page, drawn from Toni Morrison's entire body of work, both fiction and nonfiction--from The Bluest Eye to God Help the Child, from Playing in the Dark to The Source of Self-Regard--to tell a story of self-actualization. It aims to evoke the totality of Toni Morrison's literary vision.

Twenty years after they grew up in a public housing complex in mulicultural Northwest London, Natalie and Leah hardly recognize each other. Catapulted out of urban poverty by ambition and hard work, Natalie has won the success she craves, while Leah stayed close to friends and family, cherishing her working-class life. Can the women's friendship survive a looming crisis in the complex world between fortune and failure, culture and class?