Looks like someone’s had a productive quarantine. “White Teeth,†“Swing Time,†and “On Beauty†author Zadie Smith will reflect on our time spent in lockdown in a new collection of essays called Intimations. According to Penguin Random House, Intimations was written during the “early months†of lockdown and is set for release on July 28. The volume’s six new essays will explore “ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation.†“There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts,†Smith writes in the synopsis. “This is not any of those. What I’ve tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are, above all, personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.â€
Intimations, she continues, was inspired by her early-quarantine read of Marcus Aurelis’s Meditations. “I am no more a Stoic now than I was when I opened that ancient book, but I did come out with two invaluable intimations,†she continues. “Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard.†Smith’s is one of the first of what we can assume will be many collections of prose written during the coronavirus pandemic. Simply cannot wait to read everyone’s “Toosie Slide†essays.