This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

A new novel by Zadie Smith isn't just a book. It's a real event. And everyone who cares about fiction reads it and talks about it.

That's been true since her very first novel, White Teeth. From page one of that book, you heard a new voice, a bold and original voice.

And a 25th anniversary edition of White Teeth just came out this year.

It's a classic by now, which seems astonishing to say.

But if you only know Zadie Smith as a novelist, you're actually kind of missing out

because she also writes some of the very, very best essays out there.

She thinks with enormous nuance about the way we live now

and how to read about literature, technology, gentrification, politics is really not a topic that wouldn't benefit from her insight.

Zadie Smith's new book gathers some of those essays from the New Yorker and elsewhere in a collection called Dead and Alive.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of White Teeth.

And, you know, some novelists, they begin with kind of some warm-up books,

some imitative books, and then they find their stride and they become

themselves. White Teeth was this blazing white-hot debut, and somewhere along the line in this book,

you indicate that you don't completely recognize the Zadie Smith that is behind white teeth.

What do you mean?

I think it would be really strange to feel very close to your 25-year-old self when you're 50. I think for anybody that would be a

strange relation. But I have nothing but warm feelings. First of all, I'm grateful to that girl

because she wrote a book which enabled my life,

you know. It gave me license to write as I like when I like, which I don't think I would

have had without that kind of initial hit. And I love the energy of that book as I love the energy

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