Intimations: Six Essays

ONE OF:VOGUE's “Top 10 Books of 2020” THE GUARDIAN's “50 Brilliant Books to Transport You this Summer” LIT HUB's “Most Anticipated Books of 2020” FINANCIAL TIMES’ “Best Books of 2020”O MAGAZINE’s “Top 20 of 2020”TIME’s 2020 “Must-Read” ListNPR’s “Best Books of 2020”BOOK RIOT's “Best Books of 2020”TEEN VOGUE's “Best Books of 2020” “Ultra-timely . . . searching, brilliant. . . . Smith’s gifts as a novelist animate her essays.” —The New York Times “Intimations captures the uneasiness of our modern moment as Smith reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and relates it to issues of privilege and inequity. Her urgent voice tackles everything from what becomes important during isolation to the global response to George Floyd’s killing. The author asks questions, both timely and timeless, about how we respond to crisis and suffering.” —TIME “Intimations functions impressively as a document of the mixed blessing of time as well as a searing excoriation of a society that has always apportioned it unevenly.” —Vogue “Smith’s slim volume is a balm during an anxious year. . . . [Intimations] is an indispensable snapshot of a time when we were all scrambling to put our thoughts in order. I for one, am thankful to Smith for offering us hers.” —The Washington Post “An incisive collection. . . . In just under 100 pages, Smith intimately captures the profundity of our current historical moment. Quietly powerful, deftly crafted essays bear witness to the contagion of suffering.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Intimations makes a joyful case for inconsistency. . . . [A] brief but scenic route through [Smith]’s brain.” —Vulture “Six short, beautifully structured essays written largely in her characteristically gleaming prose. . . . Tight, and glossy: pleasurable to read.” —The Atlantic “[A] shape-shifting series of essays . . . engaging . . . [with] provocative insights.” —The Observer “[Smith] offers a model of how to think ourselves through a fraught historical moment without getting hysterical or sanctimonious, without losing our compassion or our appreciation for what’s good in other people. She teaches us how to be better at being human.” —NPR's Fresh Air “She is a spectacular essayist. . . . [Smith] is willing to expose the tangle of feelings the pandemic has provoked. And this may seem a small thing, but it’s essential: I never doubt her voice on the page.” —The Los Angeles Times “[Intimations’] six essays offer admirably clear-eyed meditations on coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, privilege, suffering and her neighbours. Smith writes with her usual lucidity, putting voice to the vague patchwork of unease and confusion many have felt during the pandemic.” —Financial Times“Zadie Smith is a marvel—her soulfulness, her sensitivity, her ability to write beautiful sentences. [Intimations] is a collection of her thoughts in lockdown. She doesn’t try to make grand statements but just leaves you with the sense that you’re in the company of someone who can help you feel things deeply.” —The Guardian “[Intimations] reads like a collection poised to age well. ‘The Suffering of Mel Gibson’ is a personal favourite, but ‘Postscript: Contempt As A Virus’ is the work’s true opus (however miniature). It’s a book that I’m unashamed to say is probably the impulse buy of the year.” —Drawn & Quarterly “To read Zadie Smith is to recognize how few writers seem to genuinely love human beings the way she does, with such infinite curiosity and attention, even when they are behaving monstrously. Or, for that matter, how few are able to do justice to what, for want of a better term, we’ll call common decency.” —Slate “These are not flashy hot takes for social media, but slow, thoughtful reflections. . . . Smith lucidly captures the see-saw of hysteria and banality that has marked our days, freed from their ordinary scaffolding. . . . As well as offering a new guide to living in a wild, messy and unfair world, Smith provides a reminder that we can use this crisis to imagine a better one, and that might inspire future conversations with our grandchildren.” —Evening Standard “Smith’s sensitivity to the difficulties raised by her project are articulated with thoughtfulness and a concerted absence of grandiosity. . . . The result is a slender and moving compendium of reflections that is ‘above all personal.’” —Seattle Times “Gripping, thought-provoking, a little triggering, and ultimately a joy. A must-read.” —Town & Country“Zadie Smith has always been at least as phenomenal an essayist as she is a novelist. This slim, flash-published volume of reflections on life under quarantine rides the waves of dread, loneliness, community, loss and self-refection we all went through—and still are.” —Los Angeles Times“In Intimations, Smith . . . offers us a handful of tiny, brilliant gems—crisp, catching the light, and full of clarity.” —Electric Literature