Feel Free cover art

Feel Free

Essays

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Feel Free

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Nikki Amuka-Bird
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Feel Free by Zadie Smith, read by Nikki Amuka-Bird.

From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Changing My Mind and Swing Time - discover a second unmissable collection of essays from Zadie Smith

'Generous, courageous, and tough-minded... [A] classic English essayist in the vein of Orwell, Woolf and Angela Carter' Financial Times

'Engrossing, astute... Should you read this brilliant book? Absolutely' Independent

'Generous and curious' Evening Standard

'Brilliant, lively and frequently hilarious... She's one of the brightest minds in English literature today' NPR

No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for the unstoppable Zadie Smith. From social media to the environment, from Jay-Z to Karl Ove Knausgaard, she has boundless curiosity and the boundless wit to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment, dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion.

This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.

Art Essays Social Sciences Entertainment

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Visible Man cover art
Whips cover art
Beyond the Pale cover art
A Circle of Quiet cover art
A Room of One's Own cover art
Nothing Is Lost cover art
When Nietzsche Wept cover art
The Fountainhead cover art
Modern Man in Search of a Soul cover art
The Caped Crusade cover art
Figures in a Landscape cover art
You Are Free cover art
Dead I Well May Be cover art
Shaking a Leg cover art
Mindwise cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art

Critic reviews

A writer so insistent on the possibility of imaginative connection, so generous and curious with regard to her readers
Brilliant...[Smith's] new book is lively, intelligent and frequently hilarious, and proves that she's one of the brightest minds in English literature today
Refreshingly insightful on any number of topics, from Martin Buber to Justin Bieber...Reviewing a book by her countryman Geoff Dyer, [Smith] writes that she is most struck by 'his tone. Its simplicity, its classlessness, its accessibility and yet its erudition-the combination is a trick few British writers ever pull off.' Without question, Smith is one of them
Brims with a wide-ranging enthusiasm...[Smith's] open-mindedness gives the whole of Feel Free a lively, game-for-anything spirit...Enchanting
Fascinating stuff!
Charmingly digressive...Smith sets an unpretentious tone...As the pages pass, there's a palpable absence of self-certainty. In its place are ample reserves of curiosity and empathy
The joy of this collection is Smith's straightforward phrasing, often summing up her thesis with a single thoughtful sentence. Her words are not overwritten; they do not distract from her purpose, nor are they a barrier to her argument; they are welcoming. I found myself re-reading the brightest of these sentences over and again, marveling at her humor and her brevity
The strongest essays showcase Smith's skills as an art, literary and cultural critic...One of the pleasures of reading Feel Free is in savoring Smith's joy when she writes about formative cultural experiences. As with any book of opinions, Feel Free makes claims one might dispute...But a collection of essays that doesn't prompt disagreements would be a dull book, and Feel Free is anything but dull
Getting In and Out' is the kind of essay that sheds light on a whole career, and it would justify this collection even if Feel Free didn't include a handful of more perfectly crafted pieces of prose
For years, [Smith] has been one of the most important literary journalists we have. This is why
All stars
Most relevant
I am an avid reader of Smith's fictional work and thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant book

A true work of art

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I love Zadie Smith’s novels and reading her essays I feel like I get to know her more as a person and it’s a very rewarding and educational experience. Her essays are diverse in topic and always fascinating. Often I have followed up the people or art works she describes with great engagement. Loved this so much I am on my second reading and there might be a third. Highly recommended to anyone who likes to have their thoughts stimulated and their world expanded.

Thoughtful, topical and a joy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This woman really knows how to write. I feel like I've been kicked in the head. How would I describe these essays? Complex, insightful, elegant, enjoyable, beautiful, varied, and cerebrally challenging. On the flip side, frequently inaccessible, dull, overblown, and wordy. Definitely need 'three' shredded wheaties in the tank for this one. Still and all, worth the journey.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Too much on some tings, but in end you remember the gems.

I had a hard time following the book reviews.

A bit uneaven

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I'm a huge fan of Zadie Smith's writing. I found some essays more interesting and thoughtful, and others not so much. In all, it was a relatively good read.

A relatively good read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.