num_pages: 448
description: At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. 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”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.
language: English
title: White Teeth
titlecomplete: White Teeth
characters: Joyce Chalfen, Alfred Archibald Jones, Magid Iqbal, Mr Topps, Clara Bowden, Joshua Chalfen, Millat Zulfikar Iqbal, Irie Ambrosia Jones, Alsana Begum, Marcus Chalfen, Samad Miah Iqbal, Hortense Bowden
genres: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Literature, Race, Classics, British Literature, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 152113
places: England, London, England
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Guardian First Book Award, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Whitbread Award
category: First Novel, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Puddly Award
category: Debut Novel, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book Overall, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Betty Trask Award
publisher: Vintage