“One thing you can't intend is how you will be read. I hear it said a lot that my books are about the 'search for identity', and this is said admiringly, as if I meant to encourage such a search.”

Zadie Smith is a British novelist and essayist of the 2000s and 2010s. She is best known for her sharp, culturally observant fiction that explores identity, migration, and community, including novels like *White Teeth* and *On Beauty*. Her essays often examine literature, race, and urban life with wit and intellectual depth.