Audiobooks narrated by Zadie Smith

Dead and Alive: The illuminating new essay collection from the award-winning author of The Fraud

"Brought to you by Penguin. An illuminating new essay collection from one of the most distinctive, exciting and acclaimed writers of her generation, Zadie Smith In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects which 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 Tar, and to Glastonbury to witness the ascendance of Stormzy. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North West London and invites 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. ‘Zadie Smith is a wonderful essayist. She is a natural. She writes as she thinks, and she thinks crisply and exactly’ – Tessa Hadley, Guardian 'Capricious, mischevious, curious' - Megan Nolan, Observer 'The Queen of Brit Lit returns with a collection of essays...always thought-provoking and brilliant, this is your go-to book for gifting' - Stylist © Zadie Smith 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Zadie Smith (Author), Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Weirdo Goes Wild: A joyful story about being yourself for 3-7 year olds

"Brought to you by Penguin. A warm and endearing story about the quiet power of being yourself from Zadie Smith, Nick Laird and Magenta Fox. Maud - a judo-suit wearing guinea pig and proud weirdo - is off into the wild, as is Kit, her owner. Both are slightly nervous about what they'll find in the great outdoors, but with a pinch of bravery - and a few Signature Moves - they'll make new friends and explore new worlds. Praise for Weirdo: 'A sweet, tightly written tale about the benefits of not fitting in, cheered on by Magenta Fox's gorgeous illustrations' The Times’ Best Children’s Books for Summer 2021 'As cockle-warming as a cuddle from a favourite pet, Weirdo ought to be a smash hit' Observer 'it's delightful' the i © Nick Laird 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Nick Laird, Zadie Smith (Author), Nick Laird, Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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[German] - Zadie Smith führt uns durch London NW - lit.COLOGNE live (ungekürzt)

"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 Leben zu machen. Dreißig Jahre später sind sie zwar erwachsen, doch richtig weit gekommen sind sie nicht. 'Eines der zehn besten Bücher des Jahres 2012' (New York Times). Zadie Smith (Jg. 1975) ist ein internationaler literarischer Superstar, seit ihrem Debüt 'Zähne zeigen' mit zahlreichen Preisen ausgezeichnet. Sie lebt in New York und in London. Mod.: Felicitas von Lovenberg. Eine Lesung im Rahmen der lit.COLOGNE 2014."

Zadie Smith (Author), Christiane Paul, Felicitas Von Lovenberg, Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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The Fraud: The instant Sunday Times bestseller

"Brought to you by Penguin. 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 Express SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024 Truth 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. ‘A writer at the peak of her powers’ The Telegraph ‘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 Instant Sunday Times bestseller, September 2023 ©2023 Zadie Smith (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Zadie Smith (Author), Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Recitatif: A stunning novella on race and friendship from the Pulitzer-winning author of Beloved.

"Brought to you by Penguin. 'Toni Morrison was the lodestar who inspired us' Bernadine Evaristo Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old, when they were thrown together as roommates in a girls' shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only to meet again later at a diner, a grocery store and then at a protest. The two women are seemingly at opposite ends of every problem but, despite their conflict, the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them is undeniable. Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. 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? This story is a masterful exploration of what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, of race and the relationships that shape our lives. Now with a new introduction by Zadie Smith, it is as radically compelling and relevant today as it was when first written nearly forty years ago. 'Toni Morrison is the greatest chronicler of the American experience that we have ever known' Tayari Jones 'Her work is an act of giving her community back to itself, so that people - African-Americans but the diaspora as well - can see and witness themselves' Diana Evans © Toni Morrison 1983 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Toni Morrison (Author), Bahni Turpin, Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Weirdo

"Brought to you by Puffin. 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. The charming characters of Magenta Fox, whose work is evocative of Raymond Briggs and Janet Ahlberg, perfectly offset Zadie and Nick's warm, wry prose. Weirdo is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by two veteran writers. Together they have created a story that adults and children alike will treasure. © Nick Laird, Zadie Smith 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021"

Nick Laird, Zadie Smith (Author), Nick Laird, Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Intimations: Six Essays

"Brought to you by Penguin. 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. © Zadie Smith 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Zadie Smith (Author), Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Grand Union

"Brought to you by Penguin. The first ever collection of stories from the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Swing Time and White Teeth 'Zadie Smith is the best writer of our generation' Gary Shteyngart 'Her dialogue is pitch-perfect, her comic timing masterful... [And] she also delivers a sophisticated commentary on race, gender, class, celebrity and power' Telegraph on Swing Time 'Smith is virtuosic, as ever, on family and friendship, and her ability to write about large-scale social injustice without losing her neutral novelist's gaze is breathtaking' Times Literary Supplement on Swing Time In the summer of 1959, an Antiguan immigrant in north west London lives the last day of his life, unknowingly caught in someone else's story of hate and division, resistance and revolt. A mother looks back on her early forays into matters of the human heart - and other parts of the human body - 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. Moral panic spreads like contagion through the upper echelons of New York City - and the cancelled people look disconcertingly like the rest of us. 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 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. This collection is narrated by Doc Brown, with the first and last story read by Zadie Smith."

Zadie Smith (Author), Doc Brown, Zadie Smith (Narrator)

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Thalia Book Club: Sloane Crosley, Look Alive Out There

Sloane Crosley (Author), Zadie Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Zadie Smith

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