No Small Thing: Shortlisted for the 2024 Nero Book Awards for Debut Fiction

(Paperback, Main)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

WINNER OF THE KATE O'BRIEN AWARDA BRITISH BLACKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2024'A taut generational story set on a South London estate' Independent, July Book of the Month'McDonald is skilled at investing her characters with complicated vitality ... This highly promising debut invests the small things that are so easily taken for granted with quietly shattering significance' Daily Mail'A gem of a book about mothers and daughters, about being Black and working class in today's London. Beautiful writing, taut with emotion, poetry and insight' Priscilla Morris, Women's Prize shortlisted author of Black ButterfliesAlone among the lush tangle of plants on his balcony, Earl watches as a broken family reunites in the flat below. There's Livia, who has been running for long enough to think her past might never catch up with her. Now she's forced to catch her breath and face the daughter she left behind. Then Mickey, angry about having a mother who left, a father who died, about the mess she's made of her own life. With no other place to go, she needs the mother who abandoned her. And Summer, whose new grandmother is weird, and whose mum is always sad or out looking for men to distract her. Left to roam, she finds friends who are willing to give her the attention that Mickey won't. But are they as kind as she thinks they are Burning with hope and desire, No Small Thing evokes the power and pain of mothering, and the damage we can do to the people we should love the most.

Reviews

'No Small Thing never lapses into sentimentality, earning every bit of its considerable pathos ... an accomplished novel that, in its very attention to the ordinary, is among the most unusual and refreshing debuts I have read this year' - Kieran Goddard

'A spare, haunting tale' - Observer

'McDonald is skilled at investing her characters with complicated vitality ... This highly promising debut invests the small things that are so easily taken for granted with quietly shattering significance' - Daily Mail

'From the powerful opening scene full of tragedy, this poignant debut about mothers and daughters really gets under your skin. The story is told over a year on a South London estate and it follows three generations of women who have all lost their way and are counting on each other to get back on track' - Good Housekeeping

'Impressively, McDonald never attempts special pleading or excusing, instead painting a bleak but toughly empathetic picture' - Financial Times

Author Bio

Orlaine McDonald is a writer of mixed Jamaican and Irish heritage, and lives in London. This is her first novel.