Dead and Alive Essays
Dead and Alive Essays by Zadie Smith is a new collection published by Penguin Group on October 28, 2025, featuring 352 pages in English. In this work, Smith employs her distinctive voice to explore a variety of subjects that have engaged her in recent years, offering readers a thoughtful examination of contemporary issues and cultural reflections.
Within this collection, readers will find essays that delve into the lives and works of artists such as Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker, and Celia Paul. Smith invites contemplation on films like Tár and shares personal reflections on her experiences in New York and her memories of Kilburn High Road in North-West London. The essays also address significant themes, including the impact of political changes and the collective mourning of influential writers such as Joan Didion and Toni Morrison. Through her critical and humane lens, Zadie Smith engages with the urgent preoccupations of our times, making this collection a significant contribution to literary criticism and personal memoirs.
Official synopsis Publisher
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.
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