Zadie Smith will publish a collection of essays that she wrote during the coronavirus lockdown, publisher Penguin Books said in a news release.
Intimations, “a short, powerful volume of six new essays,” will be published next month. It will be Smith’s first book since her story collection Grand Union was released last year.
“Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation,” Penguin said. “What does it mean to submit to a new reality—or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us?”
The book will be Smith’s third collection of essays. In 2009, she published Changing My Mind, and followed that up nine years later with Feel Free, which touched on subjects from musician Joni Mitchell to comedians Key Peele.
Intimations, by contrast, will be more narrowly focused, as Smith addresses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the people living through it.
“Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened—and what should come next,” Penguin said.
Intimations is slated for publication on July 28. Penguin said that Smith will donate her royalties from the book to charity.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
