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Zadie Smith’s new novel, “The Fraud,” is set in 19th-century England, and introduces a teeming cast of characters at the periphery of a trial in which the central figure claimed to be a long-lost nobleman entitled to a fortune. Smith drew many of the book’s details from the historical record — the trial and the main characters all existed much as they appear in the novel — but as she tells Sarah Lyall on this week’s episode, her archival research was far from dusty or dutiful.
“‘Research’ makes it sound really heavy,” Smith says. “It was actually a joy to read about this period and to read books set in the period. I knew it was a true story, and then I imagined fictionalizing it a lot more — but everything that I read was so completely insane that it didn’t need any further fictionalization on my part.”
Also on this week’s episode, the Times reporters Alexandra Alter and Julia Jacobs discuss a recent controversy involving the National Book Awards and their decision to drop Drew Barrymore as this year’s master of ceremonies in solidarity with the Hollywood writers’ strike. Gilbert Cruz is the host.
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