The Novel Index

Where to start with Andrea Levy

British novelist, 1956–2019. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2004, the Costa Novel Award in 2004 and the Walter Scott Prize in 2011.

Best Andrea Levy book to start with: Small Island (2004), on 6 of the 17 lists it could have made.

Small Island is the place to start. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Costa Novel Award in 2004. Four narrators, two Jamaican and two English, are connected by a house in London in 1948, and each sees the others clearly. It is funny and humane, and easy to follow even with four voices.

The Long Song was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2010 and won the Walter Scott Prize in 2011. It is set in Jamaica in the last years of slavery and after, and it is narrated by a woman in old age who has firm opinions about how her story should be told. It is shorter than Small Island and has a stronger voice, which makes it a good second book.

Andrea Levy's books, ranked best first

Small Island comes first, on 6 of the 17 lists it could have made, followed by The Long Song.

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Andrea Levy's novels in order

The earliest on our lists is Small Island (2004), and the most recent is The Long Song (2010).

  1. 2004 Small Island
  2. 2010 The Long Song

Novels on at least one of our 30 lists. Not a complete bibliography.

Lists used on this page