Male lust and female friendship draw two families together - despite the gulf that exists between them - in Zadie Smith’s engaging satire.

Professor Howard Belsey has done something stupid. And what is more it is the stupid ‘something’ that men his age seem programmed by cliché to act out. Exiled in his own home by the anger of his wife and the disapproval of his three kids, Howard is about to see his role in the family further undermined by the arrival in their East Coast college town of his nemesis, British academic Monty Kipps.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2005
Published by
Hamish Hamilton
Publication date
Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

About the Author

Zadie Smith is a multi-award-winning author, who made a huge impact with her first novel, White Teeth.
More about Zadie Smith

Other nominated books by Zadie Smith

Swing Time
The Autograph Man