Dead and Alive

Zadie Smith

$36.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Hamish Hamilton Ltd
04 November 2025

Literary essays

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.

By: Zadie Smith
Imprint: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 40mm
Weight: 700g
ISBN: 9780241729601
ISBN 10: 0241729602
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free and Intimations; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. The Fraud is her first historical novel.

Reviews for Dead and Alive

Eclectic in her tastes, centrifugal in her style, Smith as an essayist loves to stretch her frame * Financial Times * It’s hard to think of a living essayist who is better company on the page — walking you through her thoughts, curious about everything and everyone, including (unusually) the reader * Sunday Times *