Muriella Pent is a post-colonial comedy, the story of what happens when Caribbean writer Marcus Royston, a worldly, Oxford-educated, jaded, and slightly seedy writer finds himself sent to Canada on a cultural exchange, and lodged in the sprawling art nouveau mansion of middle-aged socialite Muriella Pent. In the tradition of Martin Amis' The Information and John Updike's Henry Bech series, Muriella Pent is an unnerving satire about age and youth, desire and privilege, and about warring definitions of art among intellectuals from different parts of the former British Empire.

"[Muriella Pent is a] nuanced, and ultimately funnier, comedy of manners … elegant and moving … a tremendous leap forward for an already intriguing novelist."
-The Toronto Star

"Interspersed with the biting wit is an almost elegiac quality to the writing … Smith comes closest to [Mordecai] Richler in his targeting of cultural industries and CanLit."
-The Globe and Mail

"Smith marches with boldness and humour into the minefield of race… Apart from comedy and brave insights, Smith writes some of the most luminous prose in Canadian fiction."
-The Gazette

"A gifted and sensually alert writer."
- National Post