From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Truly human, fully ourselves, beautiful," muses a character in Smith's third novel, an intrepid attempt to explore the sad stuff of adult life, 21st century–style: adultery, identity crises and emotional suffocation, interracial and intraracial global conflicts and religious zealotry. Like Smith's smash debut, White Teeth (2000), this work gathers narrative steam from the clash between two radically different families, with a plot that explicitly parallels Howards End. A failed romance between the evangelical son of the messy, liberal Belseys;Howard is Anglo-WASP and Kiki African-American;and the gorgeous daughter of the staid, conservative, Anglo-Caribbean Kipps leads to a soulful, transatlantic understanding between the families' matriarchs, Kiki and Carlene, even as their respective husbands, the art professors Howard and Monty, amass matériel for the culture wars at a fictional Massachusetts university. Meanwhile, Howard and Kiki must deal with Howard's extramarital affair, as their other son, Levi, moves from religion to politics. Everyone theorizes about art, and everyone searches for connections, sexual and otherwise. A very simple but very funny joke;that Howard, a Rembrandt scholar, hates Rembrandt;allows Smith to discourse majestically on some of the master's finest paintings. The articulate portrait of daughter Zora depicts the struggle to incorporate intellectual values into action. The elaborate Forster homage, as well as a too-neat alignment between characters, concerns and foils, threaten Smith's insightful probing of what makes life complicated (and beautiful), but those insights eventually add up. "There is such a shelter in each other," Carlene tells Kiki; it's a take on Forster's "Only Connect;," but one that finds new substance here.

International bookring!

Participants:

1. mafarrimond (UK, prefers EU shipping)
2. LittleDachshund (Bulgaria, prefers EU shipping)
3. silvia-pco (Portugal, prefers EU shipping)
4. helena100 (EU, prefers EU shipping)
.
tinajaxie (Germany, end of journey)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off it goes to mafarrimond! Enjoy.

The book has arrived safely. I have a few others in front of it but will get round to it as soon as I Can.

I really enjoyed reading this. The complexity of family life brought beautifully to life through Smiths' witty and insightful writing. Thak you for sharing this with me.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to LittleDachshund

Went to the post office during my lunch break today to pick it up. I'm halfway through Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and after that I'll start reading it.

It's been a real struggle to finish this book. I didn't like the style and the story just dragged and dragged. The author couldn't make me sympathize with the characters.
Waiting for the next reader's address to send it.

Posted to silvia-pco yesterday - 27 April.

Here it is! I'm reading another book now and I got yet another one along with this one. But us Bookcrossers have to be skilled at reading more than one book at a time, so it won't be an issue ;) I'll pick it up in a few days. Thanks for sharing!

This isn't among the best books I've read so far... Despite that, and the fact that this is not the type of book that I usually love, nor one of those fast-paced page-turners that keep you hooked, I ended up quite liking it. I was finding it a bit hard to get into the story during the beginning of my reading, but eventually the plot began to please me and I started to sympathize with the characters. It's not an easy read, though - but I guess that is due to Zadie Smith's style and her tendency to write these huge books :)

The book's already on its way to Greece, I hope it'll arrive safely!

arrived safely, thanks!
I have a couple of other books to read first, so it will take a while before I get round to starting it.