The Housing Lark

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Sitting in his cramped basement room in Brixton, Battersby dreams of money, women, a T-bone steak - and a place to call his own. So he and a group of friends decide to save up and buy a house together. But amid grasping landlords, the temptations of spending money and the less-than-welcoming attitude of the Mother Country, can this motley group of hustlers and schemers, Trinidadians and Jamaicans, men and women make their dreams a reality?

'Irreverent, spirited ... a seriously funny novel' New York Review of Books

'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' Caryl Phillips

© Sam Selvon 1965 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • 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
  • 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 vibrant comic classic … perfectly observed

    Observer
  • The Housing Lark is both spry and strikingly resonant … Ultimately, as much as its lovable characters and its caper-strewn quest, what makes The Housing Lark so special are the music and melodies of Selvon’s prose.

    Guardian
  • Sam Selvon is known for The Lonely Londoners. But it is The Housing Lark in which his brilliance truly shines.

  • Funny, subversive and lyrical … Selvon’s garrulous comically-gifted narrator feels like a friend, spinning surreal yet familiar tales in a late-night drinking den. Yet his stories have a sharp edge. The dark side of the Windrush experience lurks between the laughs and this deeply enjoyable book hides serious literary intent.

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