Small Island

"A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important."  - The 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.

"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, is touching... People can retain great dignity, however, small their island."  -  Independent on Sunday

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 the immigrant's life.