Open Book

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

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Ben Bailey Smith

Open Book: Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith talks to Elizabeth Day about her new historical novel, The Fraud.

Elizabeth Day talks to the novelist Zadie Smith about her first historical novel, The Fraud, set in Victorian London.

In an extended interview Elizabeth Day talks to the novelist Zadie Smith about the richly imagined canvas of her new novel, The Fraud. 
Despite once decreeing that she left London for New York in order to avoid writing a historical novel, Zadie Smith has now embraced the art. The Fraud comes almost two and a half decades after the literary sensation of her debut, White Teeth, both are set in Smith’s home turf of North West London. This time she brings to life the 19th century Kilburn of fields and country pubs, weaving together the lives of a Scottish housekeeper with her cousin, a popular but talentless writer, and a former slave who is a star witness in a real life court case,  "The Tichbourne Claimant".  Zadie Smith talks to Elizabeth about her writing of the novel’s intricate backdrop, her charismatic characters, the nature of truth, and her enduring impatience with the first person novel.

Book List – Sunday 10 September and Thursday 14 September

The Fraud by Zadie Smith
White Teeth by Zadie Smith 
On Beauty by Zadie Smith 
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
NW by Zadie Smith
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith 
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson 
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald

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