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The Wife of Willesden

Name: The Wife of Willesden
Price: 18.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Zadie Smith
ISBN: 9780593653739

Paperback $18.00

Published on Feb 14, 2023 | 208 Pages

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$18.00

Published on Feb 14, 2023 | 208 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

Zadie Smith’s first time writing for the stage, a riotous twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath

“Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend.
She plays many roles round here. And never
Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether
Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife
Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life
Story to whoever has ears and eyes . . .”

In her stage-writing debut, celebrated novelist and essayist Zadie Smith brings to life a comedic and cutting twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Willesden follows Alvita, a Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-50s, as she tells her life story to a band of strangers in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road. Wearing fake gold chains, dressed in knock-off designer clothes, and speaking in a mixture of London slang and patois, Alvita recalls her five marriages in outrageous, bawdy detail, rewrites her mistakes as triumphs, and shares her beliefs on femininity, sexuality, and misogyny with anyone willing to listen.

A thoughtful reimagining of an unforgettable narrative of female sexual power, written with singular verve and wit, The Wife of Willesden shows why Zadie Smith is one of the sharpest and most versatile writers working today.

“Rollicking . . . It’s hard to imagine anyone not having a good time while reading The Wife of Willesden or seeing it performed. It’s a pleasure to watch Smith refresh a masterpiece of English literature with the vitality and sheer verbal relish of contemporary vernacular speech.” —Boston Globe

“Astonishingly clever and entertaining . . . Smith’s text, spiked with raucous and often erotic satire, is almost a direct transposition of ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale,’ with an updated cast featuring Nelson Mandela, Black Jesus, Alvita’s pious aunt, the minister of a local megachurch and all five of Alvita’s hapless husbands. ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale,’ originally commentary on 14th-century sexual politics, is surprisingly relevant today. And Alvita is perfectly positioned, just like Alyson in her day, to galvanize those who could use a little more wildness in their lives.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“A triumph of dramatic creativity . . . a total delight. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

Author

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations, and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and a 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.

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The Wife of Willesden

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