I picked this up on impulse as it was stacked by the tills, half price, in my local branch of Waterstones. It came highly recommended by Simon Prosser, publisher at Hamish Hamilton, who – in this interesting round up of publishers' thoughts on the 'hits and misses' of 2013 – named it his book of the year. I'm never quite sure about Zadie Smith. I thought the first half of White Teeth was amazing, the second half less so, found Autograph Man only so-so, read 'On Beauty' but can't now remember it, and got about halfway through NW before abandoning it for something else. But Zadie in this compact size turns out to be as amazing as Simon promised, with vivid characters that live and breathe and a whole world realistically evoked through prose that has a quiet poise and beauty with not a word wasted. The tap, thwock of a shuttlecock endlessly being batted back and forth behind the house that is the embassy of the title provides a rythmic pulse that is somehow sinister, despite the fact that nothing bad actually happens. I think the air of menace comes from our knowledge, as readers, of the precariousness of the situations of African migrants to the UK, the feeling that there is no safety net, and that someone fundamentally good and decent like Fatou, the main character, is vulnerable and may be exploited. And yet here Zadie is kind to her heroine, leaving her safe in the care of her friend, Andrew, who we must trust will remain as decent a fellow as he seems to Fatou. A wonderful read with characters that linger on in the mind's eye.