Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for
Criticism
A New York Times Notable Book
From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a
new collection of essays
Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two
decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the
world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular
essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New
York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is
a literary event in its own right.
Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the
Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses
questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and
Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million
sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard
sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled
with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found
elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy
anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about
our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to
her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been
through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were
informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain
or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had
already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything
changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat."
Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work,
as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your
Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in
culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in
the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the
work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and
incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary
journalism at its zenith.
Zadie Smith's new book, Grand Union, is on sale 10/8/2019.
