Levy has a talent for crowd control, ensemble work, comic timing.

“As I read, I kept thinking how magnificently this novel would work in the theatre. Those who enjoyed SmallIsland will love The Long Song, not just for the insights on the 'wretched island,' but as a marvel of luminous storytelling.” -Ian Thomson, Financial Times In patois-inflected prose, Levy conjures the greed and licentiousness of the island's sugar impresarios and heiresses as they indulge vast meals and sexual gropings-before casting Jamaica aside like a sucked orange. “As well as providing a history of post-abolition Jamaica, The Long Song is beautifully written, intricately plotted, humorous and earthy. For all that this is supposed to be the autobiography of a woman with 'little ink,' edited by her anxious, seemly son, The Long Song is told with irresistible cunning it is captivating, mischievous and optimistic, generating new stories and plot lines throughout the tale.” -Amanda Craig, The Daily Telegraph “ The Long Song is above all the female version of emancipation, told in vivid, vigorous language in which comedy, contempt and a fierce poetry are at work. She never sermonises.” -Holly Kyte, The Telegraph Levy's handling of slavery is characteristically authentic, resonant and imaginative. This sensational novel-her first since the Orange Prize-winning Small Island, recently adapted for the BBC-tells the life story of July, a slave girl living on a sugar plantation in 1830s Jamaica just as emancipation is juddering into action. “In The Long Song, Andrea Levy explores her Jamaican heritage more completely than ever before. “This is a terrific book: beautifully written and imagined, and full of surprises.

The long song novel