ABOUT
THE BOOK

Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith’s third novel is a brilliant and very funny look at family life, marriage, the collision of the personal and political, and an honest look at people’s self-deceptions.
Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in a small college town in New England. Whilst he struggles to revive his passion for his African-American wife Kiki, his three teenage children are seeking loves, ideals and commitments of their own. And after Howard’s disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive eldest son Jerome escapes to London for the holidays, where he defies everything the Belseys represent by going to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps. Jerome falls for Monty’s beautiful, capricious daughter, Victoria, but their short-lived romance has long-lasting consequences, drawing these very different families into each other’s lives…