Dead and Alive

Zadie Smith turns her essays to subjects that have held her attention in recent years. She looks closely at the work of Kara Walker, Celia Paul and Toyin Ojih Odutola, goes to the movies to think about Tár, and reflects in New York on the unplanned moments that connect people. She walks down Kilburn High Road in North-West London, which she loves, and mourns Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Hilary Mantel and Martin Amis. Other pieces consider political transitions in Britain and America and the place of the commons in ordinary life. Throughout, Smith reasons critically and humanely about several urgent preoccupations of a troubled time.

Barack Obama included it among his favorite books of 2025.