NW cover art

NW

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
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.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

NW

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Karen Bryson, Don Gilet
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Swing Time, White Teeth and On Beauty - a masterful and intimate novel of modern London life

Zadie Smith's brilliant tragicomic NW follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel. Funny, poignant and vividly contemporary, NW is as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

©2012 Zadie Smith (P)2012 Penguin Audio
City Life Fiction Literary Fiction Urban City
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Invisible Man cover art
The Long Gaze Back cover art
War and Peace cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
Wicked cover art

Critic reviews

'A triumph. Every sentence sings' Guardian

'Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece' Daily Telegraph

'Smith's most satisfying novel. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy. She's up there with the best around' Evening Standard

What listeners say about NW

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    109
  • 4 Stars
    111
  • 3 Stars
    70
  • 2 Stars
    23
  • 1 Stars
    28
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    156
  • 4 Stars
    73
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    8
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    89
  • 4 Stars
    80
  • 3 Stars
    64
  • 2 Stars
    23
  • 1 Stars
    19

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting, but....

What did you like most about NW?

The stories are set in NW London where I live so I actually know all the places. All the characters sound familiar to me, they would actually fit into Kilburn and Willesden, not only because of there characters but also because of the narration.

Would you recommend NW to your friends? Why or why not?

I'd only recommend it to friends who live in NW London or those who have a personal connection to the area. Otherwise they'd have a hard time to follow the story as it's actually really confusing and often I couldn't figure out what it's all about.

What about Karen Bryson and Don Gilet ’s performance did you like?

Really good and authentic narration in NW accents. Well done!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, but a book I wanted to get through in one 4-day holiday, which I did.

Any additional comments?

The book is split into different stories of individuals living in NW London, a pretty rough area of the capital. All of the stories are written in different styles and it's not always easy to follow as it takes a while to get used to a particular style. And then some of the stories are really confusing so I had a hard time to grasp what they were about.
All in all I'd say this book was an interesting experiment and it's definitely worth listening if you have a personal connection to NW London. The narrators have done a good job here, but I wouldn't recommend this book as I think it's too confusing.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

a charming London book

loved it! it was hard to follow what's 6on at times, but I guess this how life in London is generally

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

a slice of authentic north London.

the characters and settings really bought north west London to live. a tale of identity and friendship. a very enjoyable listen

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

NW told so well

It's great to listen to descriptions of a place you live to reevaluate.

Zadie's descriptions were so in tune and the stories told were original.

If you love and understand London this is a great read.

Excellent Narration. I'm going to miss Listening to it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The best audio book of the best book.

One of the great novels, by an actual writer, what can I say. Reminds me of James Baldwin's Another Country, the way it lives so absolutely and totally in the city it inhabits. The reading is just fantastic, absurdly on point. Keisha Blake is a throwback to one of those 19th century characters, London's own Anna Karenina.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Zadie Explores her neighbourhood

The characters are vivid as is NW . A writer who makes a walk down the shops sing with life. Zadie Smith can do most things apart from being boring. Her london teams and some working class people can prosper but other stay stuck in poverty thick as glue.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An ok listen

The characters were well developed but the story was about flat for me wasn't gripping enough to make me read it out of excitement to see what happens next

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it!

This is an amazing book, read in an engaging way. I enjoyed every bit of it

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very good

Enjoyed it . Do watch the ITV rendition of the book this is also very good

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

NW

What made the experience of listening to NW the most enjoyable?

Fabulous voices and accents made it so real. Very well read.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

No real explanation for why Keisha behaved the way she did at the end

Which character – as performed by Karen Bryson and Don Gilet – was your favourite?

Leah seamed to change and grow with the story

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful