Incomparable World
A collection of rediscovered works celebrating Black Britain curated by Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
A visceral reimagining of 1780s London, showcasing the untold stories of African-American soldiers grappling with their post-war freedom
'Remarkable' David Dabydeen
In the years just after the American revolution, London was the unlikely refuge for thousands of black Americans who fought for liberty on the side of the British.
Buckram, Georgie and William have earned their freedom and escaped their American oppressors, but on the streets of London, poverty awaits with equal cruelty.
Ruthless, chaotic and endlessly evolving, London forces them into a life of crime, and a life on the margins. Their only hope for a better future is to concoct a scheme so daring, it will be a miracle if it pays off.
Bursting with energy and vivid detail, Incomparable World boldly uncovers a long-buried narrative of black Britain.
'Adventurous and exuberant . . . a rollicking thriller [that] pulsates with vivacity' Bernardine Evaristo
Selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An engagingly slapstick but unfocused debut from a London journalist gains most of its interest from its setting: black London of the 1780s. Having fought for their freedom on the British side during the American Revolution, ex-slaves Buckram, Georgie George and William Supple are promised pensions but instead find dire poverty and misery on the West End. When the novel opens, hapless protagonist Buckram has just been released from jail, having been caught in one of Georgie's habitual bungled schemes. Back on the street, Buckram soon finds himself drawn into more shady business, distributing black pornography, another of hustler Georgie's ideas. "His was an incomparable world," Martin writes of Georgie. "His passion was in having the time of his life and no one could slight his desire"--perhaps the only sane reaction to a world in which he finds himself a victim everywhere. The kicker comes when Georgie involves all three men in the grandest caper of their lives: a scheme to swindle American slave-traders by posing to the consuls at the American embassy as African potentates. In awkward contrast to the madcap aspects of Buckram's tale, Martin draws pathos from the squalor of the poor man's London and the plights of exiles like Supple, who pines for his wife and children in America. With often anachronistic dialogue and attitudes, Martin's romping adventure story succeeds best as the late-20th-century dream of what it was like to be black in a time that turns out not to have been much different from ours.
