I’ve really enjoyed Andrea Levy’s new novel, The Long Song, set in Jamaica in the early 1800s. Kitty is a slave on a sugar plantation, she is rather gently assaulted while she is working by the overseer, and her daughter July is the result. This is really July’s story, from her childhood, her separation from her mother because the plantation owner’s sister thought she would be a cute companion, her time in the big house, the slaves’ revolt and finally the freedom granted begrudgingly by England. Levy makes this whole period come alive - at times I laughed out loud at the tricks July got up to. Andrea will be in Sydney shortly and she’ll be interesting to listen to. This book is loosely based on her family history.
