Why a Booktrail?
1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed.
1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed.
Daphne’s attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every way: lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic. As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. But when Connie reveals that he is ‘nuh land’ – meaning he’s in England illegally – Daphne realises that she is dangerously entangled in Connie’s fragile home life. Soon, long-buried secrets in both families threaten to tear them apart permanently.
London
Spanning one tumultuous decade, Jamaica Road is an emotionally expansive debut novel about race and class, the family you’re born into, the family you choose and the limits of what true love can really conquer.
The locations are those associated with the Jamaican community – but moreover, this is a look at London through the eyes of someone who comes from somewhere else, wants to belong but struggles to do so. This is a unique look at a city we all think we know.
Destination/Location: London Author: Lisa Smith Departure:1981
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