num_pages: 533
description: 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.
language: English
title: Small Island
titlecomplete: Small Island
genres: Fiction, Historical, War, British Literature, Literature, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Race, World War II
ratings_count: 33960
places: British Empire, London, England
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Whitbread Award
category: Novel and Book of the Year, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book Overall
publisher: Headline Publishing Group