A stellar host of writers explore the cornerstone of fiction writing: character.

The Book of Other People is about character. Twenty-five or so outstanding writers have been asked by Zadie Smith to make up a fictional character. By any measure, creating character is at the heart of the fictional enterprise, and this book concentrates on writers who share a talent for making something recognizably human out of words (and, in the case of the graphic novelists, pictures). But the purpose of the book is variety: straight realism — if such a thing exists — is not the point. There are as many ways to create character as there are writers, and this anthology features a rich assortment of exceptional examples.

The writers featured in The Book of Other People include:

• Aleksandar Hemon
• Nick Hornby
• Hari Kunzru
• Toby Litt
• David Mitchell
• George Saunders
• Colm Tibn
• Chris Ware
• and more

"'The instruction was simple: make somebody up,' explains novelist Smith in her introduction to this marvelous compendium of 23 distinct, pungent stories that attack the question of 'character' from all angles. From David Mitchell's hilarious rendering of one menopausal woman's fantasy internet love-affair to ZZ Packer's heart-wrenching Jewish guy-black girl romance, each story is, as Smith puts it, 'its own thing entirely.' There are moments of prosaic precision (Andrew O'Hagan's eerily incisive 'Gordon' is introduced 'in the talcum-powdered air of the bathroom muttering calculations and strange moral sums about the cause of Hamlet's unhappiness'), but this volume is more than a showcase for deft prose and quirky souls. Toby Litt's lovely, lyrical 'Monster,' for example, playfully upends notions of personhood, as does Dave Eggers' surprising 'Theo,' a moving tale of a mountain who falls in love. Also on hand are a number of wonderful graphic shorts: Daniel Clowe shrewdly explores an insufferable critic's solipsistic lapses, Nick Hornby's 'A Writing Life' gives a knowing wink with a series of writer bios and mock headshots, and 'Jordan Wellington Lint' by Chris Ware cleverly chronicles the first 13 years of its hero's life. With so much to savor-the sensuality of Adam Thirlwell's 'Nigora,' the knowingness of George Saunder's 'Puppy'-this anthology will sate even the most famished short story fan. Sales benefit Eggers's nonprofit literary organization 826 NYC." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[T]he strongest stories in The Book of Other People should serve as introductions to their authors' oeuvres, enticing the reader to investigate further the work of writers like Edwidge Danticat, Jonathan Lethem and Colm Toibin." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"The stories included here are wonderfully various, the styles wide-ranging, the tempers diverse." Los Angeles Times

"Some of these stories are clunky....But in the best of them, Lethem, Eggers, Danticat and Smith herself create satisfying characters as memorable as any in their novels." USA Today

A stellar group of writers explore the cornerstone of fiction writing: creating character. There are as many ways to develop character as there are writers, and this anthology features a rich assortment of exceptional examples.

Zadie Smith was born in Northwest London in 1975 and still lives in the area. She is the author of White Teeth and The Autograph Man.