Paperback. Release date: 2013-01-01. Language: English. Publisher: Penguin Books. This is the story of a city. The northwest part of a city. Here you will find guests and hosts, those with power and those without, people living in a special place, and others who live nowhere, as well as many people in between. Every city is like this—close together yet separate worlds. And then there are the visits: the rare moments when a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning and disrupts the entire system. Like on an April day when a woman knocked on Leah Hanwell's door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, and forcing Leah out of her isolation. Zadie Smith's brilliant tragicomic new novel follows four Londoners—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—as they try to lead adult lives outside of Caldwell, the housing block of their childhood.