7.8 /10 1 Votes7.8
Originally published 2004 Genre Novel | 3.9/5 Goodreads Adaptations Small Island (2009) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Awards Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, Costa Book of the Year, Orange of Oranges Nominations National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Similar Andrea Levy books, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction winners, Novels |
Small Island is a 2004 prize-winning novel by British author Andrea Levy. It was adapted for television in two episodes by the BBC in 2009.
Contents
The novel is based on four main characters: Hortense, Queenie, Gilbert and Bernard and the story is told from each of their points of view. Its main plot is set in 1948 and focuses on the diaspora of Jamaican immigrants, who, escaping economic hardship on their own "small island," move to England, the Mother Country, for which the men have fought during World War II. While the novel focuses on the narratives of Gilbert and Hortense as they adjust to life in England, after a reception that is not quite the warm embrace that they have hoped for, the interracial relationship between Queenie and Michael is central to the plot and the connections that are established between all of the characters. As the story is narrated from various view points, it is achronological, skipping around to discuss each character's life before the outbreak of WWII.
In 2009 The Guardian selected Small Island as one of the defining books of the decade.
Character summaries
Prizes
The novel has won a number of prizes including: