Brief Description
This new edition of Levy's award-winning novel about Jamaicans and Londoners involved in World War II ties in with the BBC "Masterpiece Theatre" adaptation, and the publication of her new novel, "The Long Song."
On the Back Cover
Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction
A Picador Original Trade Paperback
Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.
Told in these four voices, "Small Island "is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.
Born in 1956 to Jamaican parents, Andrea Levy is the author of three previous novels and has received a British Arts Council Writers Award in addition to the Orange Prize and Whitbread distinctions. She lives and works in London.
About the Author
Andrea Levy was born in England to Jamaican parents. Her fourth novel, "Small Island", won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best, and the Commonwealth Writer s Prize. The television adaptation of her novel won an International Emmy for best TV movie/miniseries. She is also the author of "The Long Song", shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and "Fruit of the Lemon", among others. She lives in London.
