In store now! The Day I Fell Off My Island, by Yvonne Bailey-Smith
The debut novel Yvonne Bailey-Smith, mother of the best-selling author of Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and Swing Time. Using her own life as a deep well from which to draw from The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna, as she sent from the Jamaican home she shares with her grandmother to be reunited with her siblings in England. A story of immigration, family, estrangement, and reunion informed by Bailey-Smith’s many years as a psychologist, The Day I Fell Off My Island is a unique and heartfelt reflection of the immigration experience, and the intergenerational bonds which tie us together.
Order your copy today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get a commission on your purchase.
The Day I Fell Off My Island by Yvonne Bailey-Smith
Hardback £12.99
The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna Mullings, a teenage Jamaican girl uprooted from her island following the sudden death of her beloved grandmother. When Erna is sent to England to be reunited with her siblings, she dreads leaving behind her elderly grandfather, and the only life she has ever known. A new future unfolds, in a strange country and with a mother she barely knows. The next decade will be a complex journey of estrangement and arrival, new beginnings and the uncovering of long-buried secrets.
A psychologist and former social worker, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, explains:
'As an immigrant child, I often wished that someone had been able to take me aside and explain to me that leaving everything I knew to go on a so-called adventure to somewhere way beyond my imagination was going cause me an unimaginable sense of loss and sadness.
I also wish that the same person had been there to reassure me that I would survive and even flourish, given half a chance. My work and conversations with children, young people and adults, as well as with many friends, have given me a unique insight into the travails of people who have experienced things for which they felt utterly unprepared at the time.'
Order your copy today directly from October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get commission on your purchase.
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