On Beauty

Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, long-suffering art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into turmoil by his son's engagement to the socially prominent daughter of a right-wing icon. By the author of White Teeth. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 250,000 first printing. Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into turmoil by his son's engagement to the socially prominent daughter of a right-wing icon.

Winner of the 2006 Orange Prize for fiction and from the celebrated author of "White Teeth" comes another bestselling masterwork
Having hit bestseller lists from the "New York Times" to the "San Francisco Chronicle," this wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. "On Beauty" is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture warsaon both sides of the Atlanticaserve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smithas reputation as a major literary talent.
Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the "New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Time," and "Publishers Weekly" A "New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Denver Post," and "Publishers Weekly" bestseller A "Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlantic Monthly, Newsday, Christian Science Monitor," and "Minneapolis Star Tribune" Best Book of the Year Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize BACKCOVER: Praise for "On Beauty":
aA 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.a
aMichiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"
aA thing of beauty. Oh happy day when a writer as gifted as Zadie Smith fulfills her early promise with a novel as accomplished, substantive and penetrating as "On Beauty."a
a"Los Angeles Times"
aSmithas 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. . . . One of the best of the year, a splendid treat. a
a"Chicago Tribune"
aShort-listed for [the 2005] Man Booker Prize, On Beauty is a rollicking satire . . . a tremendously good read.a
a"San Francisco Chronicle"