White Teeth

At the center of this invigorating and hilarious novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal, hapless veterans of World War II. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn't quite match her name (Jamaican for "no problem"). Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire's past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth is nothing less than a major literary event that heralds the arrival of a sensationally accomplished new writer.