“Pencil leaves no mark on magazine pages. Somewhere she has read that the gloss gives you cancer. Everyone knows it shouldn’t be this hot. Shrivelled blossom and bitter little apples. Birds singing the wrong tunes in the wrong trees too early in the year. Don’t you bloody start! Look up: the girl’s burnt paunch rests on the railing.”
That’s just a small snippet from The Guardian’s lengthy excerpt of Zadie Smith’s forthcoming novel NW. NW takes place in Northwest London and is scheduled for release in September. Her previous novels include White Teeth and On Beauty. Bay Area fans of Smith’s work can purchase tickets to see her in conversation with author Dave Eggers as part of the City Arts & Lectures “On Arts” series, which benefits 826 Valencia’s Scholarship program.
