Feel Free (Smith book)

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Feel Free: Essays
Feel Free (Smith book).png
Cover of first edition
Author Zadie Smith
Audio read by Nikki Amuka-Bird [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Essay collection
Publisher Hamish Hamilton
Publication date
8 February 2018 [2]
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages464
Awards2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
ISBN 978-0241146897

Feel Free: Essays is a 2018 book of essays by Zadie Smith. It was published on 8 February 2018 by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books. It has been described as "thoroughly resplendent" by Maria Popova, who writes: "Smith applies her formidable mind in language to subjects as varied as music, the connection between dancing and writing, climate change, Brexit, the nature of joy, and the confusions of personhood in the age of social media." [3]

Contents

Smith borrowed the title from Nick Laird, her husband, who has also published a collection of poems by the same name. [4] [5]

Reception

Feel Free was generally well-received among critics. According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on 6 critic reviews with 24 being "rave" and 11 being "positive" and 2 being "mixed". [6]

Feel Free won the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. [7] The Times named it among 2018's best literary nonfiction. [8]

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References

  1. Feel Free. February 8, 2018.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. Feel Free. March 7, 2019.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  3. Popova, Maria, "Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair", BrainPickings.
  4. Kellaway, Kate (August 7, 2018). "Feel Free by Nick Laird review – glimpses of elsewhere". The Observer . ISSN   0029-7712.
  5. Bryant, Miranda (February 12, 2018). "Zadie Smith: 'I asked to use my husband's book title. Feel free, he said'". Evening Standard . Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  6. "Feel Free". Bookmarks . Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  7. Hillel Italie (March 14, 2018). "Zadie Smith, Anna Burns among winners of critics prizes". The Washington Post . The Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 15, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  8. https://archive.today/20230314001605/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/books-of-the-year-2018-literary-nonfiction-579b0kxdt

Further reading