Grand Union

Beskrivelse

Grand Union is Zadie Smith’s first-ever collection of short stories, blending new works with some of her most celebrated pieces. These tales explore a wide range of characters and moments, from 1959 London to contemporary and futuristic settings.

A diverse and thought-provoking mix of stories that examine identity, time, and the forces shaping our lives.

This collection opens with an Antiguan immigrant in northwest London living his final day, unknowingly entangled in a narrative of hatred, division, and rebellion. Another story reflects on a mother’s early experiences with love and desire, revealing how these feelings involve negotiation, destruction, and self-creation.

We meet a disgraced police officer struggling to piece together his shattered life, unable to envision a future for himself. Meanwhile, moral panic spreads through New York’s elite, and those who are "cancelled" appear remarkably like ordinary people. A teenage member of the tech elite pursues phantoms in a high-end virtual reality, followed by a little girl with no family and a runny nose.

Amid these intense narratives, there’s also a moment of escape: a package holiday where the pool’s electric blue water is endlessly refreshed, set against distant political and environmental crises that seem to affect others, far away.

Grand Union weaves together ten brand-new, unpublished stories with some of Smith’s best-loved works from publications like The New Yorker. The collection shifts effortlessly across genres and viewpoints, spanning historical, contemporary, and subtly dystopian themes.

Ultimately, this book is a sharp, insightful exploration of place and time, identity and renewal, and the lasting legacies that shape who we are, as well as the strange futures that await us.

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