Thank you for finding this book and welcome to bookcrossing! Bookcrossing is a wonderful place to share your love of reading with people all over the world.

Please journal this book, describing where you found it, and then what you thought of it. You can remain anonymous if you want to, but if you do you won't be able to get notification each time someone else journals this book.

When you have finished please release the book and let it continue its journey. Following this books travels can be very fun.

Zadie Smith's debut novel was published by Penguin in 2000. Garnering both critical acclaim as well as a huge readership, White Teeth exemplified the kind of popular and intelligent books that Penguin founder Allen Lane sought to publish. Martha and Hanwell brings together two of Smith's recent stories - never before published in book form - offering a treat for fans of her witty, powerful and often electrifying prose.

Martha, Martha:

Martha is an English girl in Boston looking for somewhere to live. Pam the letting agent showing her around cannot figure her out. I have read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, enjoyed it but found it went on way too long, so was looking forward to trying some short stories. I found this to be a bit too short and unsatisfying, I would have liked to know more, and have a bit more character development.

Hanwell in Hell:

I did find it a bit odd that a man visiting a restaurant would then spend the night (and helping to paint his flat) with a stranger, especially one below him in the social pecking order. But then I suppose the comment that desperation attracts desperation is very true. I was confused as to why the narrator would be telling this story to his daughter after a gap of 34 years. I am glad that it got explained properly.

I am writing this while in a hotel in Brussels and will release this book sometime during my travels on to the Netherlands.

Left on platform 4 when getting the train to the Netherlands.

If you were lucky enough to find this book please journal it to say where you found it, and then what you thought of it.

When you have finished please release it. Keep its journey alive!

I found the book while traveling on the train from Luxembourg to Oostende, Belgium. I found it the day you released it, July 6th, while waiting with a friend at Bruxelles Midi for our connecting train to the Belgian coast (I can't remember what platform we were on, but the bring color of the cover caught my attention). My friend and I both read it during our stay in Belgium. It traveled back to Luxembourg with us, then on to Germany, where I flew back to my home in Washington, DC. I haven't yet released it, but plan to do so soon. Hopefully it'll find a readership in the US and then continue along it's journey (which has been pretty impressive thus far!)

About the book itself: I wasn't particularly impressed by the first story, "Martha, Martha". I just didn't find it convincing. Originally from the Midwest myself, I really didn't find Pam convincing. Midwesterners simply don't talk like that. The second story, "Hanwell in Hell", was better, in my opinion. In the introduction to the book, Smith admits that short stories aren't her strong suit. I haven't read any of her novels, yet, but perhaps she should stick to longer genres.