Trinidad and Tobago / All works
Novel
The Lonely Londoners
Samuel Selvon · 1956
Synopsis
In post-war London, Moses Aloetta, a Trinidadian who has been settled for more than ten years, goes to meet a fellow countryman at Waterloo station and at once renames him Sir Galahad, while a Jamaican sees his mother arrive with five other members of the family. Without a continuous plot, the novel accompanies these newcomers for three years: the cold, the landlords, the jobs nobody wants, the Sundays when “the boys” gather in Moses's room.
Context
The author had begun the book in standard English; he realised that this language did not render his characters and rewrote everything, narration included, in a reworked Trinidadian English. This choice made the novel a founding text of West Indian letters in London, often reissued, adapted for radio by the BBC and included in 2022 among the seventy books of the Queen's jubilee. Two sequels have continued the adventures of Moses.
Who it is for
A short novel, written in Trinidadian creole, narration included; a few pages are needed to get into the language, then it reads effortlessly.
Prizes and reception
Constantly reissued in English, it was still waiting for its French translation in 2000, which critics regarded as a challenge.
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