Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About This Guide
The following author biography and list of questions about
Small Island
are intended as resources to aid individual readers and book groups who
would like to learn more about the author and this novel. We hope that this
guide will provide you a starting place for discussion, and suggest a variety of
perspectives from which you might approach
Small Island.
About This Book
Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction
Set largely in England during and soon after WWII, Andrea Levy's
award-winning debut novel
Small Island is about four different people at
a time of profound social upheaval: Queenie, the spoiled blonde daughter of a
British butcher; her husband Bernard, the repressed working-class soldier
committed to his ideals; Gilbert, Queenie's Jamaican tenant and Royal Air Force
veteran struggling to belong in the Mother Country he fought for; and Gilbert's
lovely and demanding Jamaican wife Hortense, who married not for love but for a
better life that she failed to find. As each of these character's lives
intersect in surprising and disruptive ways, all are forced to confront, and
ultimately adapt, to the changing world around them.
Discussion Questions
- In the "Prologue," how does Levy show that perception of race is often
a result of misperception? Which other scenes in the novel reveal similar
racial misperceptions? What are they and how do they lead to conflict?
- Small Island is alternately narrated by four characters—Queenie,
Hortense, Gilbert, and Bernard. How does this narrative style contribute to
the drama of the story? Did you find certain narrators more compelling? If you
were to choose one narrator to tell the story, which would you chose? Why?
- Do you think it is significant that the novel begins with Queenie and
ends with Hortense? Why?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Picador.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
