If you liked
Books like White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
White Teeth is Zadie Smith's dazzling debut, a sprawling, funny multi-generational comedy about two families in multicultural London and the tangled inheritance of history. If you want more big, ambitious social novels with a lot of voices and a lot of jokes, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Correctionsby Jonathan Franzen
“The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen 2001 review. A Midwestern family gathers for one last Christmas as the patriarch slips into Parkinson's-related dementia. National Book Award 2001 and the canonical American family novel of its decade.”
A Visit from the Goon Squadby Jennifer Egan
“A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010 review. An interconnected novel about a music-industry executive, his assistant, and the people their lives touch across forty years. Pulitzer Prize 2011 and the canonical postmodern American family novel of its decade.”
Exit Westby Mohsin Hamid
“Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 2017 review. A young Middle Eastern couple escape civil war through magical doors that lead instantly to other cities. Booker Prize shortlist.”
Pachinkoby Min Jin Lee
“Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 2017 review. Four generations of a Korean family in twentieth-century Japan, beginning with Sunja's pregnancy by a married Korean gangster in 1933 Busan. The Apple TV+ adaptation source and one of the canonical contemporary Korean-American literary novels.”
Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi
“Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 2016 review. Seven generations of two half-sister bloodlines, one in Ghana and one in America, from eighteenth-century Fanteland to present-day Stanford. Gyasi's debut and one of the canonical contemporary American diaspora novels.”
The Heart's Invisible Furiesby John Boyne
“The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne 2017 review. Cyril Avery's life across seven decades - adopted out of 1945 Catholic Cork, navigating the closeted gay Ireland of the 1960s through the 2010s. Boyne's literary commercial masterwork.”
FAQ
Common questions about White Teeth read-alikes
- I want another big, many-voiced social novel.
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan both do the sprawling, structurally inventive family-and-society novel that White Teeth pioneered for a new generation. Franzen is sharper, Egan more experimental, both are ambitious in the same way.
- I want more fiction about migration and belonging.
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid pairs a refugee love story with quiet surrealism, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee tracks a Korean family across the twentieth century in Japan. Both share White Teeth's interest in identity across borders and generations.
- I want the multi-generational family saga.
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi follows a family from eighteenth-century Ghana to the present, and The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne spans one Irish life across seventy years. Both deliver the sweep with the humor and heartbreak White Teeth balances.
- I want more of the comic energy specifically.
- The Heart's Invisible Furies is the funniest book on this list next to White Teeth, mixing broad comedy with real grief. A good match if Smith's jokes-and-tragedy balance was the appeal.
The original