• Swing Time

    by Zadie Smith
    Price $27.00
    Hardcover
    Special Order
    Order
    Swing Time

Zadie Smith

reads from

Swing Time

in conversation with CHRISTOPHER LYDON

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
There will not be a standby line for this event

This event includes a book signing

Date

Nov
18
Friday
November 18, 2016
8:00 PM ET
(Doors at 6:30)

Location

First Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

SOLD OUT.
There will not be a standby line for this event.

Harvard Book Store welcomes ZADIE SMITH, the multi-award–winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty, and Radio Open Source's CHRISTOPHER LYDON for a discussion of Smith's latest book, Swing Time.

Please note updated signing guidelines for this event

  • The author will be signing and personalizing copies of Swing Time only.
  • No memorabilia or books from home during the signing.
  • Due to time restrictions, no posed photos.

About Swing Time

Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either.

Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and stubborn roots, about how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. Moving from North-West London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.

Praise

"A keen, controlled novel about dance and blackness steps onto a stage of cultural land mines . . . Smith is dazzling in her specificity, evoking predicaments, worldviews, and personalities with a camera-vivid precision . . . Moving, funny, and grave, this novel parses race and global politics with Fred Astaire’s or Michael Jackson's grace." —Kirkus, starred review

"[A] powerful and complex novel . . . Rich and absorbing, especially when it highlights Smith's ever-brilliant perspective on pop culture." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Christopher Lydon
Christopher Lydon

Christopher Lydon

Christopher Lydon is the host of Open Source, a conversation on arts, ideas and politics – both online and on public radio.  An unconventional voice in print, television and radio journalism, Chris Lydon is an Internet pioneer, credited with doing the first (and now the longest-running) “podcast” with the proto-blogger Dave Winer in 2003 from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. 

Photo Credit: Michael J. Lutch

Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

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; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives.

Photo credit: Ben Bailey

UPDATE: Tickets for this event are sold out. There will be not be a standby line for this event.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.

First Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, cross Mass. Ave. and look for the newsstand called Crimson Corner. Turn right and proceed north along Mass. Ave. going toward the Cambridge Common. You will pass the Harvard Coop, Bank of America, and CVS. The First Parish Church is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St. Please enter through the front door of the church.

Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.

While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.

Ordering a signed book on harvard.com:

  • Add the book to your shopping cart and then click Checkout.
  • Specify in Order Comments that you want a signed copy of the book.
  • Please note: online orders for signed copies must be placed at least one business day before the event. If you are ordering the day of, please call us instead.

Ordering a signed book by phone:

  • Call us at (617) 661-1515 and one of our booksellers will take your order. Specify you'd like a signed copy.
  • If you are requesting a personalized inscription and/or requesting your book be shipped, we'll need to take down credit card information. If you are planning to pick up the signed book in the store, you can pay on pick-up.

FAQ:

Can I request a personalized inscription?
Unless otherwise noted, we are happy to take requests for the author to sign your book to a specific person, but we can't guarantee it. If you do get a personalized inscription, the book will be non-returnable. We will require credit card information when you place the order.

Do signed books cost more?
There is no extra fee for a signed book!

Do I have to pick it up in the store, or can you deliver my signed book?
As with all web or phone orders, we can hold your book for in-store pickup, or ship it anywhere in the country.

I am planning to attend an author event. Do I need to pre-order a book?
No need. We'll be selling books at the event, and nearly all of our events include a signing at the end of the talk.

More questions? Give us a call!

Event Series: This Month's Selection for our Signed First Edition Club

Signed First Edition ClubHarvard Book Store's Signed First Edition Club is a unique way for readers to connect with and create a wealth of great books. Each month, Harvard Book Store offers members a signed first edition of a newly published book, selected for both its literary merit and potential collectibility. Learn more and sign up at harvard.com/signedfirst.

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Featured event books will be for sale at the event for 20% off. Thank you for supporting this author series with your purchases.
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