The Autograph Man

Zadie Smith

Paperback

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Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Swing Time and one of the most revered writers of her generation comes an "intelligent ... exquisitely clever [novel] about fame, mortality, and the triumph of image over reality" (The Boston Globe).

Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. His business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them--all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of forties movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.

The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow trappings of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. It offers further proof that Zadie Smith is one of the most staggeringly talented writers of her generation.

Book Details

Publisher: Vintage
Publish Date: Jun 17th, 2003
Pages: 368
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.20in - 0.80in - 0.64lb
EAN: 9780375703874
Categories: • Literary• Women• City Life

About the Author

ZADIE SMITH is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, and Intimations, and a short story collection, Grand Union. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Smith was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.

Praise for this book

"Intelligent. . . . exquisitely clever. . . . an ironic commentary about fame, mortality, and the triumph of image over reality." --The Boston Globe

"The same bracing intelligence and salty humor that distinguished her debut. . . . Smith scatters marvelous sentences and sharp insights on nearly every page." --LA Times

"A lovely surprise. Zadie Smith . . . has come out with a second book that is actually better than its predecessor: its dialog funnier, its language even more plugged in, more wired." --Esquire

"A preternaturally gifted . . . writer [with] a voice that's street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time." --The New York Times

"Savvy, witty and exuberant." --New York Daily News

"Smith is young and smart, and . . . she proves to be an amazingly gifted writer." --The Washington Post Book World

"Smith writes sharp dialogue for every age and race-and she's funny as hell." --Newsweek

"[Zadie Smith] possesses a more than ordinary share of talent." --USA Today

"Absolutely delightful." --Chicago Tribune

"Smith's clever, aphoristic observations and snappy dialogue are so delightful they tend to become addictive. . . . [The Autograph Man is] always entertaining." --Elle