NW: A Novel

“[NW] is that rare thing, a book that is radical and passionate and real.” —Anne Enright, The New York Times Book Review

“A triumph . . . As Smith threads together her characters’ inner and outer worlds, every sentence sings.” —The Guardian

“A powerful portrait of class and identity in multicultural London.” —Entertainment Weekly

Set in northwest London, Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. In private houses and public parks, at work and at play, these Londoners inhabit a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end. Depicting the modern urban zone—familiar to city-dwellers everywhere—NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.