On Beauty
"Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children - Jerome, Zora and Levi - are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives." "After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive older son, Jerome, escapes to England for the holidays. In London he defies everything the Belseys represent when he goes to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps. Taken in by the Kipps family for the summer, Jerome falls for Monty's beautiful, capricious daughter, Victoria." "But this short-lived romance has long-lasting consequences, drawing these very different families into each other's lives. As Kiki develops a friendship with Mrs. Kipps, and Howard and Monty do battle on different sides of the culture war, hot-headed Zora brings a handsome young man from the Boston streets into their midst whom she is determined to draw into the fold of the black middle class - but at what price?"--BOOK JACKET
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about On Beauty
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a New England college town, the Belsey family, a white English Rembrandt scholar, his Black American hospital-administrator wife, and three teenage children, collide with their conservative academic rival's family next door.
Yes. On Beauty won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction (now the Women's Prize) and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Zadie Smith has cited E.M. Forster's Howards End as the model for the novel's structure.
A film adaptation has been in development at various points but has not been produced as of 2025. White Teeth, an earlier Zadie Smith novel, was adapted as a 2002 BBC miniseries.
On Beauty was written by Zadie Smith, published in 2005 by n/a.
On Beauty is 464 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, On Beauty takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
On Beauty is a standalone novel by Zadie Smith, not part of a series.
On Beauty is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.