NW, the title of Zadie Smith’s new novel, refers to northwest London, specifically the neighborhood of Willesden, the area where Smith grew up. Smith revisits this multi-cultural neighborhood, which served as the setting for her debut novel, White Teeth (one of my all-time favorites). “This is the story of a city. The northwest corner of a city,” says NW‘s description. “Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all. And many people in between. Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds. And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system.”The novel follows four Londoners as they try to make adult lives. Exactly the kind journey I can relate to. In true Zadie Smith form, I’m expecting one-of-a-kind characters overlapping in tangled plotlines, exploring such topics as race, class, politics and identity. [$16.17, Amazon]
