Set in North West London, Zadie Smith abandons the broad social canvas of White Teeth in favour of a work that floats between stream of consciousness, fragmented dialogue, lists, emails and interior monologues.

The novel follows four childhood friends whose lives diverge as they move through questions of class, race, ambition and belonging. London itself becomes the organising intelligence of the book: its estates, buses, accents, postcodes and chance encounters shaping every life that passes through it.

NW is a novel about proximity without intimacy, mobility without escape, and the uneasy relationship between where we come from and the selves we attempt to invent. One of the defining British novels of the twenty-first century, it rewards readers interested as much in voice and form as in story.

Penguin Books paperback edition, 2013. First Penguin edition following the 2012 Hamish Hamilton publication. Very good condition with light shelf wear and minor edge wear to the wraps. Binding remains tight and the pages are clean throughout.