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Narrated by:
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Pippa Bennett-Warner
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By:
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Zadie Smith
About this listen
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
A New York Times best seller.
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 20s, 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.
Zadie Smith's newest book, Grand Union, published in 2019.
©2016 Zadie Smith (P)2016 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
“A sweeping meditation on art, race, and identity that may be [Smith’s] most ambitious work yet.” (Esquire)
“Smith’s thrilling cultural insights never overshadow the wholeness of her characters, who are so keenly observed that one feels witness to their lives.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)
Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks on Friendship to Deepen Your Bonds
Friends are the family we choose. When we’re going through hardships or have something to celebrate, our friends are often the people we turn to first. So much of literature, art, music, and film is dedicated to romantic love, but the love between friends can be just as (if not more) rewarding. Of course, plenty of authors "are" writing about friendship, in all its many forms. Here is our list of the very best audiobooks about friendship across genres.
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Story
It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years. Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
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Very disappointing
- By Happy purchaser on 09-10-23
By: Zadie Smith
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Feel Free
- Essays
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Nikki Amuka-Bird
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.
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great material, thoroughly brilliant narration
- By Mary E. Magin on 03-09-18
By: Zadie Smith
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Grand Union
- Stories
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Zadie Smith, Doc Brown
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and her inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. Interleaving 11 completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from The New Yorker and elsewhere, Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction.
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In Defense of Zadie Smith
- By Andre on 11-11-19
By: Zadie Smith
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The Autograph Man
- A Novel
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Ben Barnes
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, his business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them - all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the reinstatement of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent God-type figure, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of '40s movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.
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Maybe it's ...me? (But I don't think it's me.)
- By Ashley J. on 05-14-18
By: Zadie Smith
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Intimations
- Six Essays
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Zadie Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality - or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it?
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An eye-opener for me into our inequitable systems
- By Rashida L on 07-29-20
By: Zadie Smith
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When I Think of You
- By: Myah Ariel
- Narrated by: DeWanda Wise
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Kaliya Wilson has paid her dues. But all the years behind the reception desk at a flashy film studio have only pushed her movie-making dreams further out of reach. That is, until a surprise reunion presents an opportunity that could make her career, or break her heart…a second time.
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Loved the story - but I’ll pass on the narrator
- By Kaila Barnhill on 05-07-24
By: Myah Ariel
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Changing My Mind
- Occasional Essays
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Split into five sections - Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering - Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both personal and cultural. This engaging collection of essays, some published here for the first time, reveals Smith as a passionate and precise essayist, equally at home in the world of great books and bad movies, family and philosophy, British comedians, and Italian divas. Changing My Mind is journalism at its most expansive, intelligent, and funny - a gift to readers and writers both.
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There may be truths on the side of life
- By Darwin8u on 02-18-20
By: Zadie Smith
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An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
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So many “WTF” moments
- By Kristen R King on 05-04-18
By: Tayari Jones
What listeners say about Swing Time
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- BNBNYC
- 02-19-17
Wonderful characters, no resolution -a very satisfying read
An engaging journey through two women's growing up years, from public housing to a third-tier university, one-name celebrities and the complexities of fighting African poverty. Many fascinating female characters, vivid writing and time-shifting made this an engrossing novel.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Therese Van Arsdale
- 05-10-18
Sadie Does It Again
What do we owe one another? It 's the central question of Swing Time. That and when does rescue become interference? For two little girls growing up in the northern suburbs of London, these questions are as intertwined as their lives as they grow up and go their separate ways. The talented one is admired. The admirer is supported. Does this make all the difference?
As always Ms Smith's writing is precise, funny, heartbreaking and true.
Adored it.
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- Kimberly
- 01-16-17
I really enjoyed this book
The narration was solid, and clever, and in some places fun. The story was interesting, and crafted in a way that pulls you in by noting the layers and depth in a chance meeting. I really enjoyed this book, and think that the pairing of Zadie Smith's words, with Pippa Bennett-Warner's performance, was an inspired choice.
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- Chris
- 12-10-16
Oh zadie
This is a huge book. But one thing Keeps it back for me. It's not the lack of resolution that it lacks rather the lack of anything to be resolved. But still loads of zadie wisdom in here. And I'm quite sure it will Age well!
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- Angelo Bergs
- 08-18-18
very realistic fiction
Swing Time is relevant and relatable while grappling difficult social and systemic issues for a modern audience.
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- Becky
- 02-12-17
A sandwich, where the bread is the best part
A somewhat evocative story, Swing Time offers a fascinating beginning and ending that almost made it worth the lengthy investment in listening to the full book. The early narrative is promising and then it's set aside for a tale involving a host of unsympathetic characters and a meandering storyline. There was so much potential in continuing to develop the tension between the two initial characters, but this relationship was unfortunately abandoned until the final chapters.
I listen to 3-4 audio books per month and finding an interesting read is such a prize. Although at times well written and intriguing, Swing Time was not a great book. I can't recommend it.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Fran
- 02-02-17
Good listen and or read just not quite as good as White Teeth
Zadie Smith is one of the great writers of our time. Her insight into characters, and the reexamination of events from different perspectives, provided not just by race or country of origin, but also by time itself makes for a compelling read or listen.
With that said I never lost myself into it like I did with White Teeth. Perhaps it's nearly impossible to match White Teeth's achievements. Perhaps it's that I'm listening to this after Trump, the anti -immigrant, anti -refugee took office and I was hoping for the feel good inclusiveness of White Teeth. Really it's hard to judge anything because it feels like we have been thrown back into Germany in the 30's. White Teeth gave me hope for humanity. This book just left me sad, albeit with greater insight.
But, like I said, every dad feels dark and ominous since Trump got elected.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Msafiri
- 05-10-18
Not for me
The book had a lot of hype around it. I did not enjoy it. Maybe it’s a British thing. But I also did not like the main character. They continually made decisions I couldn’t relate to and I was frustrated by them putting themselves in bad situations.
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- ozoze
- 05-11-17
Excellent!
Loved it. Great book and will share with my friends. Happy Reading and on to the next book.
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- Victoria
- 01-04-17
Interesting Ending
So much detail but I wished there was a bit more closure in the story. I understand the way jealousy ,rivalry and personal insecurities can cause so much dismay in a persona life. I wish the main character had developed strength.
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