Zadie Smith

Narrator

Zadie Smith is a British author whose novels, essays, and short stories have established her as one of the most important literary voices of her generation. Her work explores race, identity, class, family, and the complexities of multicultural Britain with intelligence, warmth, and a dazzling command of language. Born in Willesden,... northwest London in 1975 to an English father and a Jamaican mother, Smith studied English Literature at King's College, Cambridge. She published her first novel while still an undergraduate, and it made her an instant literary sensation. White Teeth (2000) was a sprawling, exuberant debut about two North London families — one Bangladeshi, one mixed-race English-Jamaican — spanning decades of immigration, assimilation, and cultural collision in post-war Britain. The novel won the Whitbread First Novel Award and multiple other prizes. The Autograph Man (2002) and On Beauty (2005, which won the Orange Prize) followed, each exploring different aspects of contemporary multicultural life. NW (2012) returned to Willesden for a formally experimental exploration of four Londoners from a council estate. Swing Time (2016) moved between London and West Africa. The Fraud (2023), her first historical novel, explored the Victorian Tichborne case through the lens of race, class, and identity. Smith is equally celebrated as an essayist. Changing My Mind (2009), Feel Free (2018), and Intimations (2020) collect some of the finest literary and cultural criticism being written today. She teaches creative writing at New York University. The audiobook editions of Smith's novels capture the energy, wit, and linguistic virtuosity of her prose. Her books and audiobooks are essential for anyone who loves fiction that is intelligent, generous, formally ambitious, and alive with the voices and contradictions of modern life. Read more Show less