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Zadie Smith; Actors and audio books; nut; Lady Gaga

Arts news, including Zadie Smith on her new story The Embassy of Cambodia, actors and audiobooks, a review of nut by debbie tucker green, and new albums by Lady Gaga and Lorde.

With Mark Lawson.

Zadie Smith discusses her new story The Embassy of Cambodia which is 69 pages long, and focuses on Fatou, a young African immigrant in Willesden, north-west London, who flees hardship in her own country only to face a different set of challenges in her new life.

Lady Gaga's third album Artpop is released in the UK next week. Gaga's recent performance on The X Factor to promote the album attracted hundreds of complaints about its explicit nature. Meanwhile Lorde, a 16-year-old from New Zealand, has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic singing about the glamorous world of pop that at once attracts and alienates teens. Kitty Empire discusses both singers' albums.

nut is the new play by Olivier award-winning playwright debbie tucker green, whose previous plays include born bad and random. It follows a character called Elayne and those closest to her over one day in contemporary London. Shahidha Bari reviews.

And with news that the actor David Morrissey will voice the audiobook of the singer Morrissey's Autobiography, Front Row reports on an expanding market and wonders why certain actors are cast for certain books, and what part consumer preference plays.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Available now

30 minutes

Chapters

  • Zadie Smith

    Duration: 08:25

  • Lady Gaga and Lorde

    Duration: 06:25

  • Audiobooks

    Duration: 08:20

  • nut

    Duration: 04:35

Zadie Smith

Main image of Zadie Smith by Dominique Nabokov, 2012.

by Zadie Smith is out on Friday 7 November 2013 as a hardback, ebook and audiobook, published by Hamish Hamilton.

Listen to , recorded in September of this year.

nut

, by debbie tucker green, is at the National Theatre in London until Thursday 5 December 2013.Β 

Lady Gaga and Lorde

Β is the debut studio album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde which was released in September this year by Universal Music Group.Β 

Lady Gaga'sΒ third studio albumΒ  isΒ released today, 6 November 2013, by Streamline and Interscope Records.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Mark Lawson
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Interviewed Guest Zadie Smith
Interviewed Guest Kitty Empire
Interviewed Guest Shahidha Bari

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 Nov 2013 19:15

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