Small Island: Winner of the 'best of the best' Orange Prize: Andrea Levy - Softcover

Levy, Andrea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075530750X ISBN 13: 9780755307500

Publisher: Tinder Press, 2009

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. It is possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith.

'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?

Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.

Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...

Review:

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

'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)

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)

'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)

'A cracking good read' (Margaret Forster)

'A great read...honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' (Guardian)

'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)

'Explores the Caribbean experience of immigration to Britain with great sensitivity' (Independent)

Book Description:

The multi-award-winning, million copy bestseller... 'the literary equivalent of a switch-back ride' - Sunday Times

• Publisher: Tinder Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 075530750X
• ISBN 13: 9780755307500
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560