Set in 19th-century London, The Fraud reimagines the Tichborne Trial—a real-life Victorian scandal—as a lens through which to examine truth, authorship, and identity. At the story’s center is Eliza Touchet, housekeeper and cousin to novelist William Ainsworth, who becomes entangled in the trial of a butcher claiming to be a long-lost aristocrat. Through Eliza’s sharp observations and moral grappling, Zadie Smith interrogates class, empire, race, and the shifting lines between fact and fiction. With her signature wit and depth, Smith crafts a historical novel that feels urgently modern, revealing the social and literary frauds that still echo today.
About Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith is a British novelist, essayist, and cultural critic known for her intelligent, witty, and socially observant prose. She rose to prominence with her debut novel White Teeth (2000), which won numerous awards and established her as a major literary talent. Her subsequent works—including On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time—further cemented her reputation for tackling themes of race, identity, family, and class with nuance and humanity. Smith is also a prolific essayist, contributing to The New Yorker and other publications. In 2023, she released The Fraud, a historical novel praised for its narrative complexity and ethical insight.
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