This might be the best news in months. Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and NW, says she's writing a science fiction novel.

She even describes it as a "romp." And she cites Ursula K. Le Guin as one of the book's major influences.

Talking to the London Evening Standard, Smith says she's been reading a lot of Le Guin, and she's writing her first ever science fiction book. She adds: It’s a concept novel. It’s the only novel I’ve ever written that has a plot, which is thrilling. I don’t know if I can do it. Those books are incredibly hard to write.