> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 8 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241976197
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

Feel Free

Essays




Dazzlingly insightful, explosively funny and ever-timely, Zadie Smith is back with a second unmissable collection of essays

No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for the unstoppable Zadie Smith. From social media to the environment, Tarantino to Jay-Z to Knausgaard, she has boundless curiosity and the boundless wit, insight and wisdom to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment: dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion.

This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.

  • Published: 8 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780241976197
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

About the author

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as The Embassy of Cambodia and the essay collection, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has twice been listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists. She has won the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award among many others, and been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.

Also by Zadie Smith

See all

Praise for Feel Free

Fascinating stuff!

Love It!

A writer so insistent on the possibility of imaginative connection, so generous and curious with regard to her readers

Evening Standard

Refreshingly insightful on any number of topics, from Martin Buber to Justin Bieber...Reviewing a book by her countryman Geoff Dyer, [Smith] writes that she is most struck by 'his tone. Its simplicity, its classlessness, its accessibility and yet its erudition-the combination is a trick few British writers ever pull off.' Without question, Smith is one of them

TIME Magazine

Brims with a wide-ranging enthusiasm...[Smith's] open-mindedness gives the whole of Feel Free a lively, game-for-anything spirit...Enchanting

USA Today

Charmingly digressive...Smith sets an unpretentious tone...As the pages pass, there's a palpable absence of self-certainty. In its place are ample reserves of curiosity and empathy

Minneapolis Star Tribune

The joy of this collection is Smith's straightforward phrasing, often summing up her thesis with a single thoughtful sentence. Her words are not overwritten; they do not distract from her purpose, nor are they a barrier to her argument; they are welcoming. I found myself re-reading the brightest of these sentences over and again, marveling at her humor and her brevity

Associated Press

The strongest essays showcase Smith's skills as an art, literary and cultural critic...One of the pleasures of reading Feel Free is in savoring Smith's joy when she writes about formative cultural experiences. As with any book of opinions, Feel Free makes claims one might dispute...But a collection of essays that doesn't prompt disagreements would be a dull book, and Feel Free is anything but dull

Houston Chronicle

Getting In and Out' is the kind of essay that sheds light on a whole career, and it would justify this collection even if Feel Free didn't include a handful of more perfectly crafted pieces of prose

Chicago Tribune

For years, [Smith] has been one of the most important literary journalists we have. This is why

Buffalo News

It's good to know that, while my body rusts, I can keep my mind stretched and nimble by reading Zadie Smith

Observer

A preturnaturally gifted writer with a voice that's street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time

The New York Times

Smith writes [ . . . ] with such infectious zeal and engaging accessibility that it makes you want to turn up at her house and demand tutoring

Dazed and Confused

Publisher's Description: Dazzlingly insightful, explosively funny and ever-timely, essential writer Zadie Smith is back with a second unmissable collection of essays, following up her critically acclaimed collection, Changing My Mind

Penguin

Discover more

Article
An ultimate guide to Zadie Smith

Learn about Zadie Smith's incredible books. You're sure to find a new favourite on this list!