Place matters.
Really matters.
In fiction, a setting isn’t just backdrop. It breathes. It argues with the characters. Sometimes it is the main character. This week’s quiz flips that idea. We match the cities authors actually grew up in — or lived in while sweating over manuscripts — to the locations inside their books. Pick your answers below. Correct ones appear when you select them. Want more context? Links follow the quiz.
London’s Northwest
Zadie Smith wrote early novels set in Willesden. And Kilburn. Both sit in the northwest quadrant of the city she was born in. Which city?
NYC Roots
Jonathan Lethem. The Fortress of Solitude sits in a specific NYC borough. So did Lethem while he was growing up. Which borough?
Cleveland Suburb
Celeste Ng grew up outside Cleveland. Then she put her characters in the same suburbs for Little Fires Everywhere. Name the suburb?
Far from Home
Khaled Hosseini was a medical doctor. He practiced in California. He wrote The Kite Runner there. But the book is set in his country of birth. Which one?
The Soul Search
Quiara Alegría Hudes is a Pulitzer winner. Her debut novel, The White Hot, follows a young mother searching for herself. Partly set in the East Coast city where Hudes grew up. Where is that city?
