In The Location of Culture, Homi Bhabha introduces his concepts of the third space, in-between spaces, the beyond and hybridity to explore how subordinated people – including colonized people, minorities and migrants – resist the dominant group’s power and generate newness. Newness, as presented by Salman Rushdie in The Satanic Verses, is difference that derives from immigration and hybridity, specifically, constructive changes in the way people think and behave in relation to immigration, hybridity, culture and people of colour. By examining Bhabha’s concepts in relation to the identity crises of four fictional second-generation immigrants of colour – Karim Amir in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia, Faith Jackson in Andrea Levy’s Fruit of the Lemon and Irie Jones and Millat Iqbal in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth – I show how the medium of late twentieth-century British fiction can generate newness for and through its readers. I consider Karim, Faith, Irie and Millat’s mental, physical and social spaces from Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja’s interconnected perspectives about space. I examine how the disconnect between how Karim, Faith, Irie and Millat conceive of their spaces and how white Londoners – a term I use to reference all characters in the novels with white skin regardless of their national heritages and, in some cases, immigrant histories – conceive of these same spaces creates identity crises. Through a thorough character analysis, I argue that the potential for newness is created as Karim, Faith, Irie and Millat identify and articulate their cultural differences and attempt to dismantle dichotomies to turn “us” and “them” into hybrid identities. As these characters actively question and address persisting colonial and racist ideologies and behaviours, they reinforce the ability of readers to do likewise. Readers become aware of the gaps between how daily life for British citizens of colour has been portrayed in fiction by white Britons versus by immigrants and citizens of colour, which encourages them to reconsider how they and other citizens participate in multicultural societies. Through my study, I demonstrate that newness is embedded in late-twentieth century British literature, waiting for the right people to read the novels and then insist on instigating positive cultural change.