Swing Time
Swing Time is a novel by Zadie Smith about two girls who grow up in northwest London and bond over their love of dance. The unnamed narrator and her friend Tracey share a background and a dream, but Tracey has real talent while the narrator does not. Their friendship fractures as their paths diverge. The narrator later becomes a personal assistant to Aimee, a global pop star, and travels with her to West Africa for a school-building project that reveals uncomfortable truths about wealth and influence. Moving between London, New York, and Africa, the novel examines friendship, ambition, class, race, and identity. Published in 2016, it is told in a nonlinear structure across decades and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Also by Zadie Smith
What you might want to know about Swing Time
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Two mixed-race girls in northwest London dream of becoming dancers, but only one has talent, and their friendship shapes the rest of their lives.
It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017.
Swing Time was written by Zadie Smith, published in 2016 by Penguin Books.
Swing Time is 464 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Swing Time takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
Swing Time is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
