South London, 1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed.
Daphne's attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every way: lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic, and they form an intense bond. As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. But when Connie reveals that he is "nuh land"-meaning he's in England illegally-Daphne realizes that she is dangerously entangled in Connie's fragile home life. Soon, long-buried secrets in both families threaten to tear them apart permanently.
Spanning one tumultuous decade, from the industrial shipyards of the Thames to the sandy beaches of Montego Bay, Jamaica Road is a deftly plotted and emotionally expansive debut novel about race and class, the family you're born with and the family you choose, and the limits of what true love can really conquer.
- ISBN10 0349703574
- ISBN13 9780349703572
- Publish Date 12 June 2025
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Dialogue Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 448
- Language English