Like Levy’s award-winning book ‘Small Island’ Jamaica is the setting of this new book. July’s son Thomas wants her to write a memoir of her life in the 1840s as slavery was abolished in England and her colonies. July is a wonderful character, a survivor in a world where cunning and deceit were required to navigate a very uncertain existence. Stylistically Levy’s book is a triumph of storytelling and memoir making, taking lives about which very little is known and bringing it to life. No wonder this book was nominated for the Man Booker prize this year. It fulfills on many levels.

posted May 26, 2011 at 9:40PM

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