Zoya Patel

And I think edge is exactly the way to describe it.

There's this underlying cynicism in almost all of the stories I felt, even ones with children as protagonists.

And I think the way that she does that is charming.

In other books when she does that, I don't find it charming, I find it really frustrating.

So there is a balance I think that needs to be met for the reader to not feel as if they're on the other side of the joke.

But I do think she has these moments of just beautiful imagery and real clarity in summing up some phenomenon of the modern day that really it strikes home for me.

I found that harder in the book, in the stories rather, that were looking at the past.

I found it a little bit harder to connect in the same way.

This is one of the most lovely stories in the collection in my view.

And I think I love it so much because of the adorable boy who's the main narrator of the story.

So Donovan is this little primary school age boy who has a terrible stutter and lives in Greenwich Village with his parents who are these kind of bohemian artist types.

They live in poverty, but his mother is an artist and runs this puppetry show that she's been putting on in the same place for free or for donations for the past six years, which she's very proud of.

He's really interested in the Guggenheim being built, and he wants to run his class show and tell project all about that.

And the story is about him and his assigned group project person, another girl in his class who's a little African-American girl who actually lives in Manhattan.

They have to put this project together and she comes to one of the puppet shows that his mother puts on.

And I think what I really liked about this is the way that Zadie, again, brings that cynicism in and gives this kind of sarcastic telling of these bohemian white people

You know, in Greenwich Village, who think that they're bringing art to the poor by putting on these what sound like really quite low budget, not very good puppet shows for children.

And they interact with this girl who Donovan brings along as if she is needy by virtue of the fact that she's black is what I kind of took from that.

And, you know, she's completely nonplussed and doesn't think that the puppet show is particularly good.

It's such a great story.