The BBC is reporting that the TV adaptation of Zadie Smith's White Teeth has won several awards at the Monte Carlo Television Festival. I've yet to see the TV series but if it's anything like the book, this is a well-deserved award.
White Teeth was Smith's first novel and it's a monumentous achievement. Aside from the depth of characterizations, the accurate representations of several decades of English society, the resonance of the plotlines and the protagonists, the book itself is a wonderful testament to Britain's multiculturalism -- its strengths, weaknesses, failures, and triumphs.
And she was 19 when she wrote it. What must it be like to be that young and gifted?