Swing Time
Swing Time by Zadie Smith is a first edition novel published by Penguin Books in November 2016. This 464-page work explores the lives of two brown girls from North West London who aspire to be dancers, focusing on their complex friendship and divergent paths. While one, Tracey, possesses the talent to succeed in dance, the other grapples with ideas about rhythm, identity, and freedom, leading to a profound exploration of their lives as they navigate adulthood.
Readers will find a narrative that shifts from London to West Africa, delving into themes of ambition, inequality, and cultural identity. As Tracey struggles with her career in the chorus line, her friend becomes an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, and witnesses the stark contrasts of wealth and philanthropy. The story intricately weaves together the experiences of diaspora tourists and the realities faced by those seeking a better future, highlighting the ongoing dance between past and present.
Official synopsis Publisher
“An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty Two brown girls dream of being dancers–but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It’s a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighborhood behind, traveling the world as an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one percent live. But when Aimee develops grand philanthropic ambitions, the story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey–the same twists, the same shakes–and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time”-
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