Zadie Smith's "specialty is her ability to render the new world, in its vibrant multiculturalism, with a kind of dancing, daring joy....Her plots and people sing with life," (Chicago Tribune). An award-winning British West Indian author, Smith rose to stardom at the age of 23 with the publication of her debut novel White Teeth, winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award and Commonwealth Writers Prize. The Los Angeles Times hailed White Teeth as a "dazzling intergenerational first novel...wonderfully inventive...playful yet unaffected, mongrel yet cohesive, profound yet funny, vernacular yet lyrical." Smith's third novel, On Beauty, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the 2006 Orange Prize. School Library Journal described it as "a hilarious comedy of manners in the tradition of Austen, Wharton, and Forster...She tackles class, race, and gender with acerbic wit and a wise eye for the complexities of modern life, in a 21st-century update of Howards End." Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called it "a thoroughly original tale...wonderfully engaging, wonderfully observed....That rare thing: a novel that is as affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane." Smith is also the author of the novel The Autograph Man and the essay collection Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. She will read from her new book NW, coming out in September, a tragicomic novel set in northwest London which astutely depicts the complexities of the modern urban zone. Reading followed by an on-stage interview, book sale and signing. Pre-order books by the author through Brazos Bookstore for pickup at the event by clicking here. Books will be pre-signed whenever possible. Note: We do our best to ensure all information is accurate. However, it's a good idea to visit the website listed or contact the organization or venue to verify event details.