Dead and Alive
Essays
-
-
5.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
Named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker, TIME, Vanity Fair, and Kirkus Reviews • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025
"Smart, somber . . . There’s pleasure in watching a novelist wired to see all sides at once wrangle with her own dynamic subjectivity."
- The New York Times Book Review
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 New York to reflect on the spontaneous moments that connect us. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North-West London and welcomes 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist and critic Smith (Feel Free) brings an incisive eye and keen wit to art, music, fiction, politics, and more in this wide-ranging essay collection. Whether analyzing the misogyny faced by female muses; celebrating the work of a generational novelist, such as Toni Morrison; or pointedly commenting on the political and cultural tumult of the current moment, Smith delivers original insights couched in sly, artful prose. ("We thought our lives would be reasonably paced and tell a story full of meaning. Instead it's just been one thing after another, and there are no neat conclusions, except the certainty of death.") Smith offers moments of small delight—like the time she as a young writer unknowingly bummed a smoke off Joan Didion—and takes aim at groups threatening the planet, like think tanks and lobbyists who deny climate change. Standout essays abound, but "Some Notes on Mediated Time" shines as an era-defining summation of how technology impedes the ability to be present. Readers will be rewarded by this unforgettable collection.
