200,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿 

Black Friday Sale on Now! Save up to 25% off Books, Toys, Board Games, & Puzzles! ✨

White Teeth

By Zadie Smith
Series: Penguin Essentials
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.79 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 172,030 ratings, 11,801 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In White Teeth by Zadie Smith, the story unfolds around two families in London: the Joneses, led by the Englishman Archie, and the Iqbals, led by his Bangladeshi friend Samad. As the families intertwine across generations, the novel explores themes of identity, history, and cultural clashes amidst the backdrop of multicultural Britain. It offers a vibrant narrative rich with wit and complexity, capturing the trials and triumphs of its diverse characters.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2400
Elsewhere:
$2600
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy vibrant and interwoven narratives about friendship, family, and cultural identity, set against the rich backdrop of multi-ethnic London. With dynamic characters and a touch of humour, it's perfect for readers who appreciate stories that delve into the complexities of modern life and multiculturalism.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

White Teeth by Zadie Smith is an astonishingly accomplished first novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time.

Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway…

One of the most talked about first novels ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. It deals with friendship, love, war, three cultures, and three families over three generations. The story includes one brown mouse and explores the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle. It is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.

Series: Penguin Essentials

View all
  • On Sale
    14% off
    1984
    1984 by George Orwell is a gripping tale set in a dystopian future where the world is embroiled in perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public manipulation. The story unfolds in Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, a province of the superstate Oceania. Here, the Party, led by the enigmatic and omniscient Big Brother, exerts absolute power over...
    By George Orwell
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Animal Farm
    A landmark in modern literature, Animal Farm by George Orwell is a timeless fable about the dangers of power and corruption. The story begins with Mr Jones, the negligent and frequently intoxicated owner of Manor Farm, who fails to care for his animals. Incited by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, the animals revolt, oust Mr Jones, and seize control of...
    By George Orwell
    Paperback
    $2599
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    21% off
    The Man in the High Castle
    New Penguin Essentials edition of Philip K. Dick's haunting vision of the world as it might have been. 'Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.' America, fifteen years after the end of the Second World War. The winning Axis powers have divided their spoils - the Nazis control New York, while California is ruled by the...
    By Philip K. Dick
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Submarine
    A funny, fresh coming-of-age story, now a Penguin Essential. Meet Oliver Tate, 15. Convinced that his father is depressed ("Depression comes in bouts. Like boxing. Dad is in the blue corner") and his mother is having an affair with her capoeira teacher, "a hippy-looking twonk", he embarks on a hilariously misguided campaign to bring the family back together. Meanwhile, he...
    By Joe Dunthorne
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hell's Angels
    We're the one percenters, man - the one percent that don't fit in and don't care. 'A phalanx of motorcycles came roaring over the hill from the west... the noise was like a landslide, or a wing of bombers passing over. Even knowing the Angels I couldn't quite handle what I was seeing. It was like Genghis Khan, Morgan's Raiders,...
    By Hunter S Thompson
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    14% off
    The Pursuit of Love
    The Pursuit of Love, Mitford's beloved novel, is published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'Obsessed with sex!' said Jassy, 'there's nobody so obsessed as you, Linda. Why if I so much as look at a picture you say I'm a pygmalionist.' In the end, we got far more information out of a book called Ducks and Duck...
    By Nancy Mitford
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Libra
    Libra by Don DeLillo, now available as a Penguin Essential, delves deep into the heart of America's most gripping historical moment—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Set against the backdrop of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 PM, the narrative captures the instant the nation was plunged into turmoil and psychosis. Shots ring...
    By Don DeLillo
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Forty Rules of Love
    A magical, cross-century tale of self-discovery from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - now a Penguin Essential. Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet, there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled...
    By Elif Shafak
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Backorder
    Ships early December
  • The Bastard of Istanbul
    A breath-taking novel about a violent secret that threatens the peace of two interwoven families – now a Penguin Essential. One rainy afternoon in Istanbul a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I want an abortion', she announces. She is nineteen years old, and unmarried. What happens that afternoon is to change her life, and the lives of everyone around...
    By Elif Shafak
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Chrysalids
    The Chrysalids, John Wyndham's classic science fiction novel, is published as an Essential for the first time. David Strorm's father disapproves of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, his niece Rosalind, and their friends harbour their own secret aberration that would label them as mutants. As David and...
    By John Wyndham
    Paperback
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Room with a View
    A delightfully satiric comedy of manners and an immensely satisfying love story. 'You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you . . .' Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened...
    By E M Forster
    Paperback
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • In Cold Blood
    New edition of the Penguin Essential of the book that made Truman Capote's name. 'Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, "a natural killer" - absolutely sane, but conscienceless, and capable of dealing, with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows.' On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, a wealthy farmer, his wife and their two...
    By Truman Capote
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

White Teeth by Zadie Smith is celebrated as a vibrant and audacious début novel, praised for its humour, intelligence, and scope. Critics highlight its wit, epic storytelling, and the remarkable skill of its young author. The book's narrative is characterised by its blend of humour and serious themes, marking Smith as a significant voice in contemporary literature.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241981399

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 June 2017

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 33.0mm

Width: 110.0mm

Height: 182.0mm

Weight: 305g

Pages: 560

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Series: Penguin Essentials Zadie Smith

About the Author

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free and Intimations; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. The Fraud is her first historical novel.

Also by Zadie Smith

View all
  • The Fraud
    The chronicler of contemporary London, acclaimed and bestselling author Zadie Smith, returns with her first historical novel. The Fraud explores the themes of truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, and who gets to tell their story. In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant. In...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • White Teeth
    A stunning new reissue of one of the most iconic fictional debuts of all time, to mark the 25th anniversary of this modern classic. First published in the year 2000, Zadie Smith's White Teeth was one of the most celebrated novels of the new millennium. Adored by critics and readers alike, it remains a perennial bestseller, which still delights with...
    By Zadie Smith
    Hardback
    $5400
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • On Beauty
    The bestselling, Booker shortlisted novel by one of Britain's greatest living novelists, now a Penguin Essential. Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Autograph Man
    The Autograph Man is Zadie Smith's whirlwind tour of celebrity and our fame-obsessed times. Following one Alex-Li Tandem - a twenty-something, Chinese-Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion - it takes in London and New York, love and death, fathers and sons, as Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Fraud
    The chronicler of contemporary London, acclaimed and bestselling author Zadie Smith, returns with her first historical novel. Kilburn, 1873. The 'Tichborne Trial' has captivated the widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet and all of England. Readers are at odds over whether the defendant is who he claims to be—or an imposter. Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature,...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $3700
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Intimations
    An urgently timely, deeply personal and powerfully moving series of essays on the experience of lockdown from one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time. There will be many books written about the year 2020—historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those. Written in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, as the...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $1599
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Swing Time
    The bestselling, prize-winning, generation-defining Zadie Smith's new unmissable novel out in paperback. Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and true identity, how they shape us and how we can survive them. Moving from north-west London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time. Two brown girls dream...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Changing My Mind
    An outstanding collection of wit, wisdom and writerly observation from one of Britain's most loved authors. How did George Eliot's love life affect her prose? Why did Kafka write at three in the morning? In what ways is Barack Obama like Eliza Doolittle? Can you be over-dressed for the Oscars? What is Italian Feminism? If Roland Barthes killed the Author,...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2900
    Elsewhere:
    $3200
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Feel Free
    Dazzlingly insightful, explosively funny and ever-timely, Zadie Smith's second essay collection is unmissable. No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for Zadie Smith's insatiable curiosity. From social media to the environment, Tarantino to Jay-Z to Knausgaard, she has endless fascination and the boundless wit, insight and wisdom to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty by Zadie Smith is a funny, powerful, and moving story about love and family. Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set mainly in New England and partly in London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Grand Union
    The first ever collection of stories from the bestselling and beloved author of Swing Time and White Teeth. In the summer of 1959, an Antiguan immigrant in north-west London lives the last day of his life. A mother looks back on her early forays into matters of the human heart, considering the destructive nature of desire. A disgraced cop stands...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Dead and Alive
    An illuminating new essay collection from one of the most distinctive, exciting and acclaimed writers of her generation, Zadie Smith. In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects which have captured her attention in recent years. She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih...
    By Zadie Smith
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Browse lists from our team

The Latest at Book Hero

View all

More from General Fiction

View all
  • On Sale
    13% off
    Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Court of Splintered Harmony
    Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.What was broken will be remade.Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories,...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    10% off
    New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza.    Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing and In the...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Hardback
    $6300
    Usually:
    $6999
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Chain Reaction
    Jack Reacher, \"the coolest continuing series character\" (Stephen King), returns in a brand new, pulse-pounding read from Lee and Andrew Child. The world’s bestselling hero is back in a brand new, high-octane adventure! ‘She knew that finding Reacher would not be easy . . .’ Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get...
    By Lee Child and Andrew Child
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    11% off
    Assassin’s Apprentice
    Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb marks the beginning of an extraordinary adventure in the rich and immersive world of the Six Duchies. Set against the backdrop of a kingdom teetering on the brink of civil war, this gripping tale introduces readers to FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard whose existence threatens the stability of the crown. When the crown prince's secret...
    By Robin Hobb
    Paperback
    $1700
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    20% off
    A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books)
    All five of the Court of Thorns and Roses paperbacks packaged together in a gorgeous box set. "Passionate, violent, sexy and daring." —USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $8000
    Elsewhere:
    $12495
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Threshing Day
    New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day, contains thirteen stories starring your favourite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-colour illustrations by artist Joe Requeza and silver-gilded edges. *while stock lasts. Discover the beloved world of the record-breaking, multi-million-copy bestselling series where power always demands a price, secrets darken every hallway,...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Hardback
    $4999
    Elsewhere:
    $5500
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    19% off
    Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    John of John
    The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo.'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it has an urgency, an immediacy, a brilliant sense of place, the drama of fierce emotion repressed, concealed and volcanically exposed' - Colm Tóibín'To read John of John is to move to...
    By Douglas Stuart
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    14% off
    A Court of Wings and Ruin
    The third instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, the gripping third book of the ACOTAR series, Feyre Archeron faces the ultimate battle for her world. Having returned to the Spring Court, she is determined to gather...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 200,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.