Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her Iife in her suitcase, her heart broken but her resoIve intact. Her husband, GiIbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrivaI of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resoIve. SmalI lsland is a courageous story of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of shattering compassion and reckIess optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers. |