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  • Published: 2 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141992594
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160

The Housing Lark




Set in London in 1965, The Housing Lark follows a group of West Indian friends as they attempt to buy a house together in the city they now call home, while also navigating racist attitudes, sexual politics, exploitative landlords and brushes with the law. Written with Selvon's characteristic exuberance and humour, this is a vivid and moving depiction of the migrant experience, peopled by a compelling cast of schemers, dreamers and hustlers.

  • Published: 2 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141992594
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160

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Praise for The Housing Lark

Selvon's meticulously observed narratives of displaced Londoners' lives created a template for how to write about migrant, and postmigrant, London for countless writers who have followed in his wake, including Hanif Kureishi and Zadie Smith ... The Housing Lark is a a fine, and unfairly neglected, companion novel to The Lonely Londoners

Caryl Phillips

A unique and wonderful novel, comic and serious, cynical and tender-hearted ... With its surprisingly happy ending and irreverent, spirited wit, The Housing Lark goes against the grain of much postcolonial literature ... Funny, serious, innovative, multilingual, musical, The Housing Lark shows how literary expression can create community across race, gender, place, and time

Dohra Ahmad

A vibrant comic classic ... perfectly observed

Colin Grant, Observer