The Long Song

The Long Song
Author Andrea Levy
Country America
Language English
Subject War
Genre War
Set in Jamaica
Published 2010
Publisher Charnwood
Pages 416
Awards Notable Book of the Year, Walter Scott Prize
ISBN 0-7553-5941-0
OCLC 812984161

The Long Song is a historical novel by Andrea Levy published in 2010 that was the recipient of the Walter Scott Prize.

Plot summary

The Long Song is written as a memoir by an elderly Jamaican woman living in early 19th-century Jamaica during the final years of slavery and the transition to freedom that took place thereafter. It tells the tale of a young slave girl, July, who lives at Amity – a sugarcane plantation. She lived through the 1831 Baptist War, and then the beginning of freedom. Her mother, Kitty; the negroes working the plantation land; and the owner of the plantation, the white woman Caroline Mortimer, are other characters in the novel.[1]

Themes

The themes of the book incorporate: how it feels being an immigrant Jamaican, racism, black versus white, landlord versus tenant, slavery and its abolition, slave uprisings, rape, 1831 Baptist War, the clergy and love triangles.

Criticism

Kate Kellaway in The Observer;[2] Tayari Jones in the Washington Post,[3] Fernanda Eberstadt in The New York Times,[4] and Amanda Craig in The Telegraph[5] gave the book positive reviews.

Awards

The Long Song was a finalist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. It was the recipient of the 2011 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.[6] The New York Times Book Review named it a Notable Book of the Year.

References

  1. ↑ "The Long Song by Andrea Levy". Good Reads. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Kellaway, Kate (7 February 2010). "The Long Song by Andrea Levy". The Observer. London. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Jones, Tayari. "Book review: 'The Long Song,' by Andrea Levy". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Eberstadt, Fernanda. "When Jamaica Lost Its Chains". New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Craig, Amanda. "The Long Song by Andrea Levy: review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "Overview". Barnes and Noble. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
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