Zadie Smith, NW

Beatriz Perez Zapata (University of the Balearic Islands)

Ed. by Jenni Ramone, The Nottingham Trent University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Aug 2012

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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(2012) is Zadie Smith’s fourth novel and its publication was long awaited after a seven-year hiatus since the publication of

On Beauty

(2005), only broken by some short stories and her first book of essays,

Changing my Mind

(2009). The novel was well received and it went on to be adapted into a television film for BBC Two in 2016.

is Smith’s most complex novel to date in terms of its plot, structure, and narrative devices.

, which stands for North West, returns to the suburb of Willesden but in a more decisively critical manner. This North West is also a sort of No-Where in which a group of characters get lost and some, eventually, are found. The novel does not hide the crude realistic portrayals of what it means to be female, black British, working-class, of what it feels…

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2918 words

Citation: Perez Zapata, Beatriz. "NW". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 April 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34687, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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