In the original dustsheet. Red cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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In the author’s words, this novel is “an attempt at a comic family epic of little England into which an explosion of ethnic colour is injected”. It tells the story of three families, one Indian, one white, one mixed, in North London and Oxford from World War II to now.

Review: It can’t get any more postmodern than this; a pinnacle of postmodern literature, White Teeth, written in the winter of 20th century is an Hegelian synthesis of sorts. It has come to be the symbol of the contemporary fragmented world – an offspring of the marriage between the inescapable past ( an empire there was, a distant cold war and drifting faintness of World Wars) and the promise of future ( the dynamics of economic politics, pro-labour climate, a recently forged EU, growing environmental awareness). In many ways, it is the Pulp Fiction of postmodern literature; the characters are numerous but indistinct. Depth of the narration is sacrificed for variety but still none of the characters are allowed to take the centre. Their stories are their own yet they all are interactive and adjacent enough to somehow add up to the grand collage that is the book. The writing is confident with an air of fresh humour while the narration has a distinct flair to stoke the comical nerve of all – the melodramatic, et cynic et politically correct, well, perhaps even a terrorist. ( something they want to call hysterical realism)The characters are memorable and funny but in a serious way; When was the last time you heard of an Englishman who wanted to run away from a world war and wished to kill himself after forty years and failed? the various settings in the book are believable ( Move over Mr Rushdie)but still is an inventory of exuberant comedies- Samad’s persistent guilt about masturbation, his amazingly hilarious speech at the Parent Teacher’s meeting. For all these reasons, White Teeth is a rare accomplishment, fringe of hilarious dysfunctions, a book composed of justified innocence and unique energy. A book, perhaps, only possible on a debut.

The Author, Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, and a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.