Zadie Smith : Northwest

Zadie Smith's brilliant tragi-comic NWfollows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel. A portrait of modern urban life,NWis funny, sad and urgent - as brimming with vitality as the city itself. A Granta Best Young British Novelist 2013 'Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece. No better English novel will be published this year.' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph 'Astonishing, dazzling. Really - without exaggeration - not since Dickens has there been a better observer of London scenes. Zadie Smith is a genius. It's hard to imagine a better novel this year - or this decade.' A. N. Wilson 'Absolutely brilliant. So electrically authentic.' Time 'Captivating. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy. She's up there with the best around.' Evening Standard 'Marvellous . . . crackles with reflections on race, music and migration. A lyrical fiction for our times.' Spectator 'Undeniably brilliant . . . rush out and buy this book.' Observer