White Teeth by Zadie Smith
This is a pretty amazing first novel; the author was 25 years old when she wrote it. It's kind of a crazy ride, but I loved it--Bangladeshi and Jamaican immigrants to England; Jehovah's Witnesses; a genetically altered mouse called FutureMouse, among other things. Beautifully written. I thought it was great.
Here's the disclaimer: there's a lot of swearing in this book, as well as some drug use and other things that some of y'all might find offensive. So you've been warned.