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NW [Hardcover]

Zadie Smith
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
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Book Description

27 Aug 2012

NW is Zadie Smith's masterful novel about London life.

Zadie Smith's brilliant tragi-comic NW follows 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, NW is funny, sad and urgent - as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

Praise for NW:

'Her dialogue sings and soars; terse, packed and sassy. Smith is simply wonderful: Dickens's legitimate daughter' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

'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

'Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece. No better English novel will be published this year' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

'Absolutely brilliant. So electrically authentic' TIME

'Captivating. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy, like London. 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

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man and On Beauty, and of a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People.


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Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (27 Aug 2012)
  • Language: Unknown
  • ISBN-10: 0241144140
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241144145
  • Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 2.9 x 24 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 8,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

About the Author

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975, and still lives in the area. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man and On Beauty, and of a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 55 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars An Exercise in Style 3 Sep 2012
By S Kemp
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
NW is a brave departure for Zadie Smith and one that could potentially alienate a large proportion of her readership. It is an odd and fragmentary novel, humourless and bland. The melodious prose and multiple plots have given way to a modish Modernism; Dickens's influence has been erased, the 'hysterical realism' utterly subdued. But that is to be expected. Novelists do not have to keep rehashing a working formula, and it says something of Smith's integrity that she has decided to move on. The new style, then, is encapsulated in the narrative's stuttering and spare composition, a complete reversal of the seamless unity of her last three novels.

The novel follows a group of thirtysomethings from the same Caldwell council estate, Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan. Each character carries the burden of urban ennui: Leah is in the midst of an existential crisis, her closest friend Natalie (formerly Keisha) a class-conscious barrister seeking some excitement; Felix, however, is a wide boy recovering alcoholic similar to Nathan, who simply shuffles through the pages as a homeless junky. All the usual themes are accounted for (identity, class, race, drugs, love, work, death, guilt, redemption), but as Smith's interest in each character is asymmetrical, it makes the book unbalanced. It flows best as a procession of snapshots replicating the random movements of a city. But, to follow Smith down this structural and experimental route, the characters must be interesting, and sadly they are not.

The depth just isn't there, each one barely knowable. Instead of total characterisation, there are only pointed and evocative shards, the broken bottle approach leaving the process of reassembly in the reader's hands. Such, though, is the way with Modernism. But if the protagonists offer no interest (except for Felix), then we must take London itself as the main focus, for it is London (and Smith perfectly transcribes the city's cacophonous rhythms in short poetic passages) that infuses the novel with life. It is the aloof and indifferent backdrop to the action, a riot of multicultural beauty; what a shame it is, then, that the characters flitting through Smith's pulsating and carefully assembled capital seem so stale.

Overall, though, NW is an interesting novel, a valid exercise in style. It may have its failings, but this is a transitional work in Smith's oeuvre. She is adjusting her voice and modifying her delivery. The better novels will surely follow.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By G. L. Haggett VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
There can be no doubting the quality of Zadie Smith's prose. However, for all the class and style, there often seems to be a vacuum at the heart of her fiction.

She is on home ground here with the setting of the book and her ear for dialogue is extraordinary; however, all too often that ear is not backed up with the substance required to make a story interesting. Consequently, the characters seem more like ciphers and it becomes very difficult to care about them or about the events around them.

That is a shame, because writing of this quality deserves an audience; as it stands, this is a fine exercise in creative writing, not much more.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and dull 8 May 2013
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
An uncomfortable, edgy style with short, incomplete sentences scattered with 'nah', 'bruv' and 'gonna ', was bound to create a restless book. It succeeded, and at first it was compelling, but the author relied too much upon for it for character development. Using frequent repetitions of 'innit', an irritating word at the best of times (is it a word? what does it mean?) is no substitute for crafting a character. And could she really not think of anything more original to say than 'He thought he had never seen anything so beautiful'? A book about Hackney? It IS Hackneyed! Worst of all, and unforgivably in a book which is meant to be aspiring to high things, the book is dull. Half-way through the book there is a chapter when Felix visits Lloyd, and by the end, having ploughed through all the nahs and bruvs, throughout a conversation duller than waiting for a bus, I decided I had had enough. Why did Bring up The Bodies beat it in the Orange awards? Why was it ever put in the same short list!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Clever, clipped, fragmented
A disjointed, partial glimpse of life in inner city London, where the style perfectly reflects the themes. Read more
Published 4 days ago by E Webb
3.0 out of 5 stars Sorry
Just too jumpy for me so was confusing. I don't mind confused but too much is tiresome. That' s all.
Published 11 days ago by Mrs Margaret Russell
2.0 out of 5 stars NW by Zadie Smith
So sorry! It's not my cup of tea. Maybe someone should explain to me how it is all supposed to hang together. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Mr. Royce Lindsey-noble, Mrs Lindsey-noble
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
I have read and enjoyed Zadie Smith's previous books, but found this one very patchy. There are stretches which are really well written and engaging, but the storyline has gaps in... Read more
Published 19 days ago by Louis the cat
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Beautifully written. Slightly weak middle section, but otherwise stunning and a real development in her writing. Thoroughly recommend this book.
Published 24 days ago by A. J. Bringans
4.0 out of 5 stars really enjoyed it!
I grew up in this area at around the same time as Zadie and she has really captured a feeling of the place
only 4 stars because I dont think there was any resolution to the... Read more
Published 26 days ago by kindleaddict
1.0 out of 5 stars Just couldn't get on with it!
So boring and really irritating as I live in NW and I just don't warm to these characters.
Zadie Smith can't keep writing the same novel over and over
Published 1 month ago by Ms Nano Nagle
3.0 out of 5 stars good book
I found the book good even though difficult to get into. The writing style I find is always a bit of a challenge for me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by laurence
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
I was drawn to this book as it is set in London and I like Zadie Smith's style of writing. It did take me a while to get into it, but I persevered and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Published 1 month ago by Sylvia Blight
3.0 out of 5 stars moments of brilliance and real poetry but more three novellas than a...
A very gritty description of London and perhaps any city with moments of brilliance but ultimately this felt like three loosely linked short stories rather than a novel on the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anna MacGillivray
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