Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Embassy of Cambodia | 2013 | Zadie Smith | Buy |
The Embassy of Cambodia first appeared as a short story in The New Yorker in 2013 before being published as a standalone novella by Penguin. It is set in Willesden, the North London neighborhood that recurs throughout much of Zadie Smith’s fiction.
The story centers on Fatou, a young woman from the Ivory Coast employed as a domestic worker by a Pakistani family. Her daily life is shaped by routine and quiet observation, including her fascination with a mysterious badminton game she can see over the wall of the nearby Cambodian embassy. Through Fatou’s perspective, Smith examines immigration, exploitation, and the ways people find small pockets of freedom within constrained lives.