From the Archives : Zadie Smith : Grand Union

Today’s classic episode from the archives with Zadie Smith was recorded in 2019 at the studios of KBOO community radio to discuss her story collection Grand Union. The conversation ranges wildly—from the politics of representation, of being “free to imagine,” to the freedoms we’ve surrendered to surveillance capitalism. It ranges widely because her collection is, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle an “unusual creature…Between the covers of one book, readers will find such disparate forms as allegory, parable, speculative thriller and satire, as well as shorter incarnations of Smith’s characteristic social comedy . . . Smith’s voracious intellect is on full display.” If you enjoy today’s conversation consider joining the Between the Covers community as a listener-supporter. Find out about all the potential benefits and rewards of doing so at the show’s Patreon page.

You can listen to From the Archives : Zadie Smith : Grand Union online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

From the Archives : Zadie Smith : Grand Union is an episode from Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Milkweed Editions.

This episode is 56:50 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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