Gloria

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'Kerry Young is a standalone talent in the new emerging generation of writers from the Caribbean region. Read her if you want to know about the Caribbean' - Monique Roffey, winner of the OCM BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Literature

'A vivid portrayal ... Kerry Young's heartfelt, sparky and affecting debut novel is a chronicle of multicultural Jamaica, both in its cultural richness and in its strife and tensions' - Guardian

'A pacy but absorbing saga of domestic struggle and gangland manoeuvring set against the violent backdrop of postwar Jamaican politics' - Independent on Sunday

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From the author of the Costa and Commonwealth Prize-shortlisted Pao

Jamaica, 1938. Gloria Campbell is sixteen years old when a single violent act changes her life forever. She and her younger sister flee their hometown to forge a new life in Kingston. As all around them the city convulses with political change, Gloria’s desperation and striking beauty lead her to Sybil and Beryl, and a house of ill-repute where she meets Yang Pao, a Kingston racketeer whose destiny becomes irresistibly bound with her own.

Sybil kindles in Gloria a fire of social justice which will propel her to Cuba and a personal and political awakening that she must reconcile with the realities of her life, her love of Jamaica and a past that is never far behind her.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of a country on the cusp of a new era, Gloria is an enthralling and illuminating story of love and redemption.

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'Gloria is a brilliant, observant, sometimes complex read, but with clear and simple messages, it speaks to the feminist and equal rights campaigner in all of us *****' - Western Mail

'A very authentic portrayal of a woman’s lot in 1950s, 1960s Jamaica. I fell in love with Gloria and was turning over the pages rapidly, willing her to conquer her situation. A triumph' - Alex Wheatle, author of Brenton Brown

'A highly evocative portrait of a country in transition, and of one woman’s search for self-awareness and self-respect' - Mail on Sunday