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, and a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for 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.
More information from the publisher.
Photo credit: Dominique Nabokov
ISBN: 9781594203985
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. -- Provided by publisher.
Examining 'Swing Time' can be done through a variety of different lenses. Below are links to other library guides related to some of the themes that come through in Zadie Smith's 'Swing Time'. The list below provide just a few of the themes that can be explored more deeply, but does not represent a complete listing of possible themes of this novel.
Are you examining 'Swing Time' in a way that is not represented here? Explore other library guides for resources and links.
Zadie Smith’s New Novel Takes on Dance, Fame and Friendship (The New York Times, November 10, 2016)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith review – a classic story of betterment (The Guardian, November 13, 2016)
Know Thyself? 'Swing Time' Says It's Complicated (NPR, November 16, 2016)
‘Swing Time’: Zadie Smith’s sweeping novel about friendship, race and class (The Washington Post, November 9, 2016)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Kirkus Review, November 15, 2016)
Gale Literary Criticism Online
MLA International Bibliography on Zadie Smith
MLA International Bibliography on Swing Time
Other works by Zadie Smith at Trexler Library
"Conversation with Zadie Smith" Wednesday, November 28, 7:00pm in Empie Theater. Tickets required.
More coming soon!
