Small Island - Hardcover

Levy, Andrea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0755307496 ISBN 13: 9780755307494

Publisher: Headline Review, 2004

Synopsis

It is 1948 in an England still shaken by war. At 21 Nevern Street, London, Queenie Bligh takes into her house lodgers who have recently arrived from Jamaica. What else could she do when her husband, Bernard, never returned from his RAF wartime posting to India? Among her tenants are Gilbert and his new wife Hortense. Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England after the war he finds himself treated very differently now that he is no longer in a blue uniform. Desperation makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Hortense shared Gilbert's dream of leaving Jamaica and coming to England to start a better life. But when she at last joins her husband, she is shocked by London's shabbiness and horrified at the way the English live. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.

Queenie's neighbours do not approve of her choice of tenants, and neither would her husband, were he there. Through the stories of these people, SMALL ISLAND explores a point in England's past when the country began to change.

About this title

Review:

'What makes Levy's writing so appealing is her even-handedness. All her characters can be weak, hopeless, brave, good, bad - whatever their colour. The writing is rigorous and the bittersweet ending, with its unexpected twist, touching... People can retain great dignity, however small their island' Independent on Sunday, 25/1/04 (Independent on Sunday)

'A brilliantly deft and humane account of two ordinary couples in post-war London' Evening Standard, 3 February 2004 (Evening Standard)

'Small Island is never less than finely-written, delicately and often comically observed, and impressively rich in detail and little nuggets of stories' Evening Standard, 2 February 2004 (Evening Standard)

'Every scene is rich in implication, entrancing and disturbing at the same time; the literary equivalent of a switch-back ride' The Sunday Times, 29/2/04 (The Sunday Times)

'Small Island is as full of warmth and jokes and humanity as you could wish...Such a rich saga, stuffed full of interlocking narratives' Time Out, 2 February 2004 (Time Out)

'An involving saga about the changing face of Britain' Mirror, 6 February 2004 (Mirror)

'It's an engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving' Daily Mail, 6 February 2004 (Daily Mail)

'I know it is a fiction, but I emerged from the book full of admiration for the patience and resilience of that generation...Levy has written one of those rare fictions that tells you things you didn't know but feel you should have known...the writing is deft and striking, without being pretentious' Sunday Herald, 8/2/04 (Sunday Herald)

'With this funny, tender, intelligent fourth novel Andrea Levy looks set to become as commercially popular as she is critically acclaimed' Sainsbury's magazine, February 2004 (Sainsbury's magazine)

'A bevy of luminaries have garlanded Andrea Levy's fourth novel with advance praise - and it's no surprise. Using elements of her own family background, Levy has vividly animated London in the immediate aftermath of World War II... She weaves a wonderfully detailed and vibrant story' Red magazine, February 2004 issue (Red magazine, February 2004 issue)

Book Description:

In this delicately wrought and profoundly moving novel, Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a lightness of touch and a generosity of spirit that challenges and uplifts the reader.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Review
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0755307496
• ISBN 13: 9780755307494
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448