A passionate and perceptive story full of the pain and the humour of growing up, from Andrea Levy, author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.

NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE is the story of two sisters, Olive and Vivien, born in London to Jamaican parents and brought up on a council estate. They go to the same grammar school, but while Vivien's life becomes a chaotic mix of friendships, youth clubs, skinhead violence, A-levels, discos and college, Olive, three years older and a skin shade darker, has a very different tale to tell...

A passionate and perceptive story full of the pain and the humour of growing up

About the Author
After she passed away on the 14th of February 2019, the Bookseller wrote: 'Andrea Levy will be remembered as a novelist who broke out of the confines assigned to her by prejudice to become a both a forerunner of Black British excellence and a great novelist by any standards.' Born in England to Jamaican parents who came to Britain in 1948, Andrea Levy wrote the novels that she had always wanted to read as a young woman, engaging books that reflect the experiences of black Britons and at the intimacies that bind British history with that of the Caribbean. She was described by BBC News as 'a writer who tackled important social issues . . . her writing . . . witty, humane and often moving, and full of richly drawn characters'. She was the author of six books, including SMALL ISLAND, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and the Whitbread book of the Year, and was adapted for TV and for the stage, by the National Theatre. It was selected by the BBC as one of its '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'. Her most recent novel, THE LONG SONG, won the Walter Scott Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and was adapted for TV by the BBC.

Reviews
'Painfully perceptive and passionate, NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE hits a raw nerve with its powerful concoction of poignancy and humour' * Pride *
'Passionate and angry' * TLS *
'In this lively, crisp, raw voice, young black Londoners may have found their Roddy Doyle' * Independent on Sunday *
'Levy's raw sense of realism and depth of feeling infuses every line' * Elle *
'An inspired coming-of-age novel with a mature grasp of generational conflict, pressure to conform, and the fraught process of discovering one's identity, NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE should be read by anyone who is growing up in Britain today' * Scotsman *
'The story is well told, does not dodge complexity and rings true' * The Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780747252139
Author Andrea Levy
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Headline Review
Publisher Headline Publishing Group
Weight(grams) 232g
Dimensions(mm) 202mm * 171mm * 17mm