This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mel.

And I'm Cherminardi. And today we have a conversation with one of my favorite writers of all time, Sadie Smith.

We are very excited about this. Her new novel, The Fraud, is her first piece of historical fiction.

It's set in London and Jamaica in the 1800s and explores how the sugar trade funded colonial Britain.

Zadie's mom is Jamaican. Her dad was British, so it was also a bit of a personal exploration for her.

The first half of the book centers around Eliza Touchet, who is a widow and a housekeeper to her prolific, but not particularly talented novelist

cousin, the real-life William Ainsworth. And it goes on to recount this famous real-life historical

trial of Roger Tickbourne, a butcher claiming to be this shipwrecked aristocrat and heir to a Jamaican

sugar fortune. And, you know, there were many parallels to Trumpism and American populism.

But for me, I loved that this was also at the heart a novel about novelists.

And Charles Dickens plays a role.

It's just a real delight all around.

Yeah, no, it was such a good read.

And I loved being able to read it over the summer.

I mean, I've loved Zadie's work since her early novels, White Teeth on Beauty is one of my

favorites, and of course, I've just been a fan of her impeccable style.

I mean, what's not to love?

What's not to love?

Sadie and her family moved back to London from New York quite recently, you know,

and as someone who's lived in New York for 20 years and about to move to the UK, I really,

really wanted to get her tips and just get a sense of why she fell in love with New York.

And it was kind of interesting talking to her about some of all of that, right?

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