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White Teeth

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White Teeth

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner, Ray Panthaki, Lenny Henry, Sagar Arya
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of White Teeth by Zadie Smith, read by Lenny Henry, Sagar Arya, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Ray Panthaki.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth is a classic international best seller and an unforgettable portrait of London.

One of the most talked about fictional debuts ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-listen.

©2018 Zadie Smith (P)2018 Penguin Audio City Life Family Life Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Urban Women's Fiction Heartfelt Funny

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Critic reviews

"Funny, clever...and a rollicking good read." (Independent)

"An astonishingly assured but, funny and serious...I was delighted." (Salman Rushdie)

"The almost preposterous talent was clear from the first pages." (Julian Barnes, Guardian)

All stars
Most relevant  
This is a fantastic book performed brilliantly by all the narrators. The character are interesting. Funny, thought provoking, emotional and sad.

Wow best book I have listen to in ages.

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What an amazing book which nearly escaped me - 22 years too late! Absolutely loved it.

How have I missed this?

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the book is all about characters not so much story. for some people this is great. for me I am dyslexic so need a riveting tale to follow and enjoy. was just a bit tooooo slow for me

not exciting

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A good read, but a terrible listen!
Four speakers, none of whom could do a passable South Asian, Caribbean AND cockney working class accent.
Number 1 failed miserably with a South Asian accent, number 2’s cockney and Caribbean was execrable, number 3 did best, but again failed with South Asian, and number 4, for the climax of the novel, didn’t even try to get any. Read the book, don’t torture yourself with this recording!

Terrible narrators

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This was a great audiobook, I loved the changing voices! and the swift movement through the book. I really recommend this audiobook!

fantastic

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it took me 3 attempts at reading this, I found it quite hard to get through and I felt it went off at a tangent a few times, but i downloaded it as an audio book and found it easier to follow by listening than reading and actually at the end when it all tied together and came to an end I enjoyed it, i think if i read it again I'd appreciate it more.

mixed feelings

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In a few years, I think I'd be willing to give the physical book a try. I loved the story and the writing and whilst it was slow paced I found it really colourful and interesting with vibrant carachters.
However, like so many other reviewers I felt the narration - the final narrator in particular - really let down the telling of the novel. I missed a lot of the climactic last quarter... purely because my mind had wandered. It took me ages to finish because whilst I wanted to hear what happened, the knowledge I had to endure another hour of that narration kept me from coming back - I listened to two other audiobooks before finally returning to this one.
If you are in two minds, I would suggest you buy a physical copy and read it with your eyes, for the sake of your ears.

Climatic final quarter ruined by weak narration

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I found it an odd production choice to have four different narrators. Yes the book is divided into four sections which focus the story on different characters, but it is a third person narrative which means that the whole cast of characters is given a makeover by the new narrator.

I really enjoyed the characterisations given by Sagar Area and Pippa Bennett-Warner. Sagar's Samad Iqbal was terrific and Pippa's voicing of the younger characters was brilliant. However, like many other reviewers, I felt let down by the fourth and final narrator who seems to have made the conscious decision not to distinguish between characters (with the exception of Mickey) and gave a listless performance to much of the narration. This, unfortunately, made the story hard to follow and detracted somewhat from the climax of the novel.

The novel as a whole was very different to what I had expected (not in an unpleasant way), spanning several decades and generations of the two main families and having moments of real humour to drive the story along.

Odd production choice

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Great book, great production. The breadth of the story was huge and so many stands were teased out, then bought back together across a diverse set of lives.

great book

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Zadie Smith has captivated me with her writing and story telling of the families their cultures religions classes and more!

Zadie is so clever!!!

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