This week David talks to the novelist Zadie Smith about Charles Dickens: what he means to her, why we still read him, and what’s missing from the Dickensian view of the world. It’s a conversation about other writers as well – Turgenev, George Orwell and Toni Morrison – and about whether fiction shows us how to live or rather helps us to see the ways in which ... Show More
Aug 2024
The Vision of Novelist Zadie Smith (‘The Fraud’)
Last fall, Zadie Smith published her prescient historical novel The Fraud. We return to our conversation with the beloved author this week, on the heels of our latest sit-down with writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner. At the top, Smith details her most recent book (7:48), her instinctiv ... Show More
1h 8m
Sep 2023
Zadie Smith on Her New Historical Novel
<p>Zadie Smith’s new novel, “The Fraud,” is set in 19th-century England, and introduces a teeming cast of characters at the periphery of a trial in which the central figure claimed to be a long-lost nobleman entitled to a fortune. Smith discusses her new novel with Sarah Lyall.</ ... Show More
34m 57s
Jun 2022
82* Zadie Smith in Focus (JP)
In this 2019 episode, John interviews the celebrated British writer Zadie Smith. The conversation quickly moves through Brexit (oh, the inhumanity!) and what it means to be a London–no, a Northwest London–writer before arriving at her case against identity politics. That case is ... Show More
53m 28s
Sep 2023
Zadie Smith’s Guilty Pleasure is Rap Feuds
Chioma and Chloe talk to Zadie Smith about her style (David Byrne suits and intimidating looks), what she wore to her college interview, internet wormholes she falls into, and how she felt when she finished her new book, The Fraud – her first piece of historical fiction. Learn mo ... Show More
31m 36s
Mar 2023
Margaret Atwood on Good, Evil and Stupidity
Margaret Atwood, famed author, poet and “dystopia prophet,” joins Offline to talk about fighting tyranny and finding hope. Much like her latest book, Old Babes in the Wood, Atwood’s conversation with Jon sandwiches her thoughts and fears on the present between poignant chapters o ... Show More
45m 43s