Much has been made recently about typesetting and its effects — note the attention the Atlantic paid to Michael Beirut's fine collection 79 Essays on Design , as well as the fierce partisanship the Helvetica meme unearthed. Thus, it's fitting that in her introduction to this much-anticipated collection, editor Zadie Smith avoids any awkward categorizations of the contributors and instead notes the varied typefaces in which these 23 stories were submitted to her. Americans like the much-maligned font Courier, she reports, and the Brits use "the elegant, melancholic Didot." One writer, Smith notes, even contributed a story in a long, slender magazine-style column. She must be referring to Jonathan Lethem, whose homunculus-like character Perkus Tooth rails against the New Yorker's typeface and transcribes the articles to read them unfettered from their typographical chains.

Smith, the award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty , who recently made book news for hating on literary awards, told her contributors to "make somebody up." The response was phenomenal. An impressive list of hip, young writers — including David Mitchell, Jonathan Safran Foer, Vendela Vida, and Edwidge Danticat — as well as the leading graphic novelists (Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns) who provided the striking cover illustrations, came through with new characters. (We imagine Melvin Jules Bukiet got bounced from the guest list after scribbling this risibly misguided essay about his colleagues.)

Although the absurdly named Tooth is perhaps the most memorable character in the book, you only need to read one paragraph about Magda Mandela, the subject of Hari Kunzru's electric contribution, to feel the weird, creeping thrill of meeting truly bizarre "other people." In "Roy Spivey," Miranda July personifies anew her trademark sweet, bewildered femininity, and Dave Eggers is particularly impressive with "Theo," departing from his usual, harrowing fare to introduce a lovelorn giant. (In fact, one suspects that Eggers himself was the glue holding the whole thing together: the book is a charitable enterprise benefiting 826 Valencia, the nonprofit he founded that offers workshops and support to young writers.) Though few readers will find all of Other People's stories appealing (more than a third of the pieces have already appeared in the New Yorker and other publications), the collective talent is undeniable.

-Tom Mayer