English literature

The Buddha of Suburbia

“My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.” Chapter 1: The Suburban Beginning Karim Amir, a mixed-race teenager, introduces himself and his […]

English literature

Swing Time

“It was the first time I had understood how a thing can seem to be one thing but also another, how a single surface can be divided, like […]

English literature

NW

“The fat sun stalls by the phone masts. Anti-climb paint turns sulphurous on school gates and lampposts. In Willesden people go barefoot, the streets turn European, there is […]

English literature

White Teeth

“What is past is prologue.” — William Shakespeare (Epigraph in White Teeth) Part One: Archie 1974, 1945 The novel opens with Archie Jones, a middle-aged Englishman, attempting suicide […]