ABOUT
THE BOOK

White Teeth chronicles the experiences of two eccentric multiracial families based in London and spanning twenty-five years during the last half of the twentieth century. The friendship of the fathers, Archibald and Samad, dates back to their shared experiences during World War II. Archibald Jones marries Clara, a nineteen-year-old Jamaican who escaped from her Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. Samad and Alsana Iqbal have twin sons, Millat and Magid, one of whom they send back to Bangladesh to be raised far from the corruption of post-war Britain. The riotous and tortured histories of the Joneses and the Iqbals are fundamentally intertwined, capturing an empire’s worth of cultural identity, history and hope.