The Housing Lark
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  • Published: 15 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241524848
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $18.00

The Housing Lark

Formats & editions
EBook
2 Apr 2020
Audiobook
15 Apr 2021
Paperback
6 Aug 2020
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A poignant and funny novel about West Indian immigrants in 1960s London, from the author of The Lonely Londoners

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: 15 April 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241524848
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $18.00
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About the author

Sam Selvon

Sam Selvon was born in San Fernando (Trinidad) in 1923 and worked in his homeland as a wireless operator and reporter. In 1950 he left Trinidad for the UK, where he established himself as a writer with A Brighter Sun (1952). Many other books followed, including his best-known novel, The Lonely Londoners (1956), and its two sequels, Moses Ascending (1975) and Moses Migrating (1983). He moved to Canada in the late 1970s and died in 1994.

Also by Sam Selvon

Ways of Sunlight
Calypso in London
Moses Ascending
The Lonely Londoners
See all

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
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