Alex Wheatle – författare

Brought to you by Penguin.Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches . . .Irresistible, gripping and unforgettable, Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky''s War in Jamaica, 1760.© Alex Wheatle 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

"This novel will be nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in similar circumstances and a breath of fresh Jamaican air for anyone else" The Voice Jenny and Hortense Rodney have always loved and hated one another in the way that only sisters can. From their childhood in Claremont, rural Jamaica, to working life amid the hustle and bustle of Trenchtown, they are the turning point in a multi-generational tale.Enticed by the possibilities of the colonial "motherland", the sisters move to England and settle in the bleak streets of Brixton, only to find that this land of opportunity is instead one that will stretch their fractious relationship to breaking point . . . A hauntingly beautifully evocation of twentieth-century Jamaica and the Brixton of the Windrush generation, Island Songs is an epic of love, laughter and sorely tested family loyalties. By the author of Brixton Rock, East of Acre Lane and Homeboys, and several bestselling, prizewinning novels for younger readers"Island Songs grabs your heart " Independent"Alex Wheatle has a real talent for understated, convincing dialogue" Big Issue

"One of the big memoirs of the summer" i news"A potent tale of triumph over adversity. Angry but never bitter, Wheatle''s compassion shines through the pain" Observer"Alex is a truly gifted storyteller, and the way he details his own story here is no exception" JEFFREY BOAKYEIn this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed writer Alex Wheatle shows how music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse.Abandoned as a baby to the British care system, Alex grows up with no knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Later, he is inexorably drawn to reggae, his lifeline through disrupted teenage years, the challenges of living as a young Black man in 1980s Britain and his imprisonment for protesting against systemic racism and police brutality.Alex''s youth was portrayed in Oscar Award-winning director Steve McQueen''s Small Axe series. In Sufferah, he tells his own story, urgently, vividly and unsentimentally. His award-winning fiction - and this memoir - are a call to never give up hope. They remind us that words can be our sustenance, and music our heartbeat."Alex Wheatle is the real deal; he writes with heart and authenticity, books that make you laugh and worry and cry and hold your breath" KIT DE WAAL"Alex Wheatle is an inspirer. He sheds light in dark places . . . He is a vital writer" LEMN SISSAY"Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion" STEVE McQUEEN, director of Small Axe

Brixton, twenty years after the race riots. Teenager Dennis Huggins drifts into the easy, dangerous life of the shotta - or drug dealer - and discovers that, hard as the struggle for respect on the streets is, the struggle for love is harder still. At least Dennis has involved parents looking out for him; too many of his friends drift through life with no positive influences or moral code; their only ''family'' their fellow dealers. Wheatle brilliantly evokes the temptations of the thug life for young black men growing up in London''s ''Dirty South'' - this is a fast, compelling novel that offers no easy answers, but refuses to shy away from asking the difficult questions.