White Teeth
Zadie Smith · b. 1975 · England
Why it matters
Two wartime friends and their tangled families across decades of postwar London, from Bangladesh to Jamaica to the local pub. A dazzling debut and the great comic novel of the multicultural city.
At a glance
family sagasatire
Difficulty 5/10medium pace448 pagesSprawling multigenerational cast and digressive comic asides slow a fast-moving plot.
Deep dive
Why the novel hands its most tightly engineered symbol — a genetically programmed mouse — the job of escaping.
Where to go next
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