"Zadie Smith, who narrates the first and last of the 19 stories in her collection, vividly explores people's complex lives.... Smith's low pitch and English accent make this work sound calm and literary - as if she is narrating to a familiar audience. Doc Brown's narration of the other 17 stories is an entertaining ebb and flow of energy. He employs different accents and plays with pitch.... Brown's enjoyable narration adds to Smith's well-established reputation as a writer." (AudioFile Magazine)

"Grand Union is an unusual creature, combining all the experimental exuberance of a writer discovering a form with the technical prowess of one at the height of her abilities. The result is exhilarating.... Smith’s voracious intellect is on full display. With vitality and wit, she shuttles between the philosophical universal and the intensely local - a movement formally realized in stories like 'Two Men Arrive in a Village' - between the world and the self.... It is a delight to watch Smith play." (San Francisco Chronicle) 

"[Grand Union] contains some of Smith’s most vibrant, original fiction, the kind of writing she’ll surely be known for. Some of these stories provide hints that everything we’ve seen from her so far will one day be considered her 'early work,' that what lies ahead is less charted territory, wilder and less predictable." (Rebecca Makkai, The New York Times Book Review) 

"An enchanting collection that examines the complexity of contemporary life. This book of short stories, the author’s first, refuses to define itself as any one thing. Instead, Smith allows each story to take on a tone, genre and life of its own.... This wild ride that Smith takes readers on is a delight to experience. Her characters are vivid and unique, as are her observations about the state of the world." (Associated Press)