Forthcoming from Zadie Smith
The Wife of Willesden
On sale 2/14/23
Zadie Smith’s first time writing for the stage, a riotous twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath
In her stage-writing debut, celebrated novelist and essayist Zadie Smith brings to life a comedic and cutting twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Willesden follows Alvita, a Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-50s, as she tells her life story to a band of strangers in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road. Wearing fake gold chains, dressed in knock-off designer clothes, and speaking in a mixture of London slang and patois, Alvita recalls her five marriages in outrageous, bawdy detail, rewrites her mistakes as triumphs, and shares her beliefs on femininity, sexuality, and misogyny with anyone willing to listen.
A thoughtful reimagining of an unforgettable narrative of female sexual power, written with singular verve and wit, The Wife of Willesden shows why Zadie Smith is one of the sharpest and most versatile writers working today.
All Books by Zadie Smith
About
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 two collections of essays, Changing My Mind and Feel Free. 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.
Media
FEEL FREE WINS THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM
FEEL FREE SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY
ZADIE SMITH ANSWERS FAN QUESTIONS FOR THE GUARDIAN (The Guardian,1/21/2018
MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017: A LOOK AT THE LONGLISTED NOMINEES (The National, by Ben East, 7/29/2017
ZADIE SMITH, ANN PATCHETT AMONG 2016 NBCC FINALISTS (Publishers Weekly, by Emma Koonse, 1/17/2017
Backstage at Pen and Podium
Zadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Smith was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002.
Contact
PUBLICITY
UK Media:
Poppy North
Head of Communications, Penguin General
pnorth@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
US Media:
Juliana Kiyan
Associate Director of Publicity, Penguin Press
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Steven Barclay
Steven Barclay Agency