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Dead and Alive

The illuminating new essay collection from the award-winning author of The Fraud

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Dead and Alive

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Zadie Smith
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Summary

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

 Art & Literature Artists, Architects & Photographers Authors Essays Politics & Government Social Sciences
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Critic Reviews

Smith gives a masterclass in the modern essay. In Dead and Alive, Zadie Smith once again confirms that she is among the most expert essayists of her generation . . . Even when she writs about death, disillusionment, or the absurdity of fame, “protect your consciousness,” she advises, and this book feels like an act of protection in itself – an argument for stillness, attention, and moral imagination in a distracted world. Smith has written a generous, fiercely intelligent collection that reminds us why essays matter. They keep us awake, alive, and, in Smith’s words, “just human enough to hope”
It’s not often that I find myself getting genuinely excited for the release of an essay collection, but I make an exception for Zadie Smith. Much as I love her novels, her criticism and non-fiction have always had the edge for me. I always come away from reading her essays feeling as though she’s managed to articulate something I’ve been mulling in the back of my mind for a while. Simultaneously, she manages to turn all my assumptions upside down – and isn’t that exactly what reading should do? Dead and Alive is a real dazzler, jumping effortlessly between subjects as disparate as the Cate Blanchett movie Tar, the work of Hilary Mantel, Stormzy’s Glastonbury set, and Smith’s beloved hometown of Kilburn. Buy it for that friend who’s intimidatingly culturally literate, and await their nod of approval
Capricious, mischievous, curious . . . she is a vivid and rigorous thinker, her best pieces here radiant with curiosity, and a serious but not self-serious grappling with the terror and anxiety of modern life (Megan Nolan)
Filled with Smith’s crisp observations, Dead and Alive is a smart, sombre book . . . There’s pleasure in watching a novelist wired to see all sides at once wrangle with her own dynamic subjectivity; what’s compelling is the effort of eliciting in herself the most honest possible take . . . Writing criticism –offering an opinion, putting one’s skin in the game – is a form of stewardship to the commons, of showing up to that imperilled space in which Cultural Luminaries might decide to join students in speaking out against injustice, however imperfectly, because they feel an ethical imperative to do so. In Dead and Alive, Smith reminds us that this place still exists, even as its lights flicker and dim
Dead and Alive showcases a writer whose curiosity remained undimmed. She effortlessly transitions from art critique to musings on politics, grief and pop culture
Acute and entertaining . . . Fascinated to Presume: In Defence of Fiction is a nuanced take on the thorny issue of representation in fiction . . . These essays sketch out the ideas and critiques that inform Smith’s novels. They are a delicious peek behind the scenes of a great writer at work – or at play
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