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  • Small Island

  • By: Andrea Levy
  • Narrated by: Andrea Levy
  • Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,128 ratings)
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Small Island cover art

Small Island

By: Andrea Levy
Narrated by: Andrea Levy
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Summary

Small Island by best-selling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as many other awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith.

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....

©2004 Andrea Levy (P)2015 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

"Wonderful...seamless...a magnificent achievement." (Linda Grant)
'A great read...honest, skilful, thoughtful and important.' ( Guardian)
"A cracking good read.... I think what appealed to me most was the passion and anger in the writing all the way through, yet it was always leavened with a particularly wry sort of humour - the sort that, tho' you find yourself smiling, you at the same time realise you almost shouldn't be." (Margaret Forster)

What listeners say about Small Island

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A breath taking saga.

I loved this audio book. I had chosen the book for my book group so listened to it after I'd read it.
I got so much more from it by doing this.
I was born in 1940 so was just a baby during the war and this was a real eye opener for me.
If ever Andrea Levy tires of writing she could surely earn a living with her talent for narrating!

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18 people found this helpful

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  • Mr
  • 18-05-16

A lovely easy to follow story

I found this a very enjoyable book to listen to, easy to follow with only a few key characters. The story develops over time in a very elegant way.

The narrator (also the author) was excellent.

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12 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Most amazing book I have ever read

I am so happy that my daughter recommended this book to me. As most people I am wary of authors narrating their own books but Andrea Levy was absolutely perfect. Varying Jamaican accents, wonderful northern accents, Indian accents - both male and female. I challenge any actress to have achieved this for 17 hours. The story was a huge mix of wonderful humour, terrible sadness and mind-altering knowledge. We all know of colour and racial prejudice but unless we have experienced it for ourselves could never understand the truly dreadful hurt it must cause. I wish this book could somehow have gone back in time to have been used as education. A fabulous achievement and this book deserved every single award that it received.

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9 people found this helpful

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  • 09-12-18

Interesting

Although this is fiction it held the truth about the attitudes and experience of people who came to help the mother country. It also highlighted the racist attitudes of a few British people after the war had ended. Men who were once good enough to fight for England were no longer welcome in peace time. It also makes you think about what is happening today with the Windrush generation who came to England as British and after a life time of service are told to leave.

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7 people found this helpful

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Loved the audio version

I struggled to read the book due to Dyslexia but liked the story so got the audio book. Brilliant! Really liked that the author is the one reading it.
I really enjoyed how the book was written with different characters narrating different parts.
I'd definately chose another book by the same author in the future.

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4 people found this helpful

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Brilliant story, great narration

Brilliant story, great narration. Fascinating context and narrative, an insight into lives and attitudes around race and migration in war and post war England

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3 people found this helpful

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What a find....loved it.

Really sorry it's come to an end. What a great story, love, hope, racism and so much pride. A lot to be learnt from this book.

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2 people found this helpful

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Superb

I must have been in a reading void when this book was first published because I cant believe I havent already read it.
It is a fabulous story that addresses the issues and lives of the people who travelled to England for and afyer the 2nd world war.
The carachters are depicted in all their splendour and squalor and they really come to life within the pages.
The blatant racism that existed at the time is depicted without any guile and unfortunately still resonates with today's society.
This book should be on the school curriculum if its not already!!!

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2 people found this helpful

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Fabulous

Possibly the best book I have ever read. Certainly in the top three! Thought provoking.

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2 people found this helpful

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Best read yet!

From the start you're placed slap bang in the middle of it all and you cannot stop listening!

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2 people found this helpful