NW

One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2012 Set in northwest London, Zadie Smith's brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals-Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan-as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. In private houses and public parks, at work and at play, these Londoners inhabit a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end. Depicting the modern urban zone-familiar to city-dwellers everywhere-NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.