**Join the Bondi Literary Salon for our February book club, hosted by Simon Pearce! In our gathering, we will be discussing Zadie Smith's astonishingly accomplished first novel, White Teeth.**

WHEN: Wednesday, 7th February 2024, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore, please arrive at 6.45 pm for a prompt 7 pm start.

TICKETS: Admission; $25.00 (excluding external fees). Your ticket includes a drink on arrival and nibbles during the evening.

The most highly praised debut novel in recent years.

About White Teeth

One of the most talked about fictional débuts of recent years, 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-read of a book.

About the Author

ZADIE SMITH was born in north-west London in 1975. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as The Embassy of Cambodia and the essay collection, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has twice been listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists. She has won the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award among many others, and been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.

About the Host

Hosted by Simon Pearce from the Bondi Literary Salon Book Club. Simon has had an unusual journey as a reader. As a child, he was a reluctant reader. Like many of his peers, a small, indie publishing project by the name of Harry Potter began pulling him into the world of books. However, it wasn’t until after he left school that his real literary journey began.

Throughout many of life’s ups and downs (although mostly ups!) he always returned to one central comfort – that an abundance of joy, hope, self-enrichment, optimism, knowledge, creativity and maybe even salvation lies within the pages of a great story.

What’s next for his literary journey? He just might do something as dangerous as hosting a book club and maybe even write some stories of his own!

A few of his Desert Island books include:

· Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

· A Gentleman from Moscow – Amor Towles

· A Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

· Normal People – Sally Rooney

· Just Kids – Patti Smith

About Bondi Literary Salon

Bondi Literary Salon was established in 2018, it is the in-house book club of the beloved Bondi institution, Gertrude & Alice. The Bondi Literary Salon endeavours to explore the vast world of literature each month, with a selection that reflects a focus on diverse writers and stories; delving into both classic and contemporary fiction, as well as non-fiction.

Our philosophy has always been to use language and literature not only as a tool for connection and community but as an insight into worlds we have not had the pleasure of visiting ourselves. We welcome all - young and old, those with a life-long love of literature, or whose relationship may be only beginning. Join us in the unmatched comfort of an after-hours bookstore, accompanied by wine and cheese, for an evening spent discussing books and building community.

About Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore

Rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic, Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore is an oasis for writers, readers, and coffee lovers. Books overflow from the shelves of their store, featuring a mix of new, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books. Stay a while & enjoy some homemade chai, and amazing coffee, and unearth a book treasure or two. Read more about the bookstore's story here, and about the real Gertrude & Alice here.