All posts tagged: Zadie

What to read this summer by Mark Haddon, Samantha Harvey, Zadie Smith and more | Books

What to read this summer by Mark Haddon, Samantha Harvey, Zadie Smith and more | Books

Published by Sam Flores

Zadie SmithMargaret Busby’s Part of the Story: Writings from Half a Century is the record of one woman’s lifelong passion for the literature and life of Africa and its diaspora, wherever she finds it. A beautiful collection. The funniest and smartest novel I’ve read in a while is Black Bag by Luke Kennard. Mark HaddonCan I recommend some metaphorical summer travel? Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King, won the International Booker prize so you’re legally obliged to read it. But there are three other books on the shortlist I would strongly urge you to get your hands on. The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin, brilliantly fictionalises the story of the film director WG Pabst who fled Germany before the outbreak of the second world war, felt ignored in Hollywood and made the foolish decision to return home. On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan, is a short, sharp cleaver-blow of political horror set in a Brazilian prison camp. And She Who Remains …

Art for Our Sakes | Zadie Smith

Art for Our Sakes | Zadie Smith

Published by Jenni Sidey

I wasn’t going to come today. Partly because the act of coming here—to America, as a non-American—is now a fraught, stressful, and even dangerous proposition for millions. Also: What’s the point? That’s what an old friend, another writer, asked me. By this he meant: Why talk about arts and letters when people are being gunned down in the streets? I’m going to answer the question as best I can, but I’ll say first that when I looked at the list of previous speakers and spotted the name E.M. Forster—and the year 1949—I was curious. I wondered what he could possibly have had to say to a room full of artists in the wreckage of World War II. So I dug up Forster’s remarks. But it turned out I’d already read them—and dismissed them—years ago, when I found them in his collection Two Cheers for Democracy. The essay is called “Art for Art’s Sake.” I prepared to reread it, not expecting much. “Art for Art’s Sake.” Really? Nothing could be less fashionable. It wasn’t fashionable in …