Smallie

Tender, lyrical and strikingly assured, Smallie moves with a propulsive energy, structured around cliffhangers and withheld revelations. In its mosaic of Caribbean immigrant life in London, it echoes the emotional reach of Andrea Levy’s Small Island , but reframed with the hindsight of just how fragile belonging is, and how easily it can be withdrawn. It feels like a novel that will come to sit among the defining literary accounts of this shameful period of British history

Tender, lyrical and strikingly assured, Smallie moves with a propulsive energy, structured around cliffhangers and withheld revelations. In its mosaic of Caribbean immigrant life in London, it echoes the emotional reach of Andrea Levy’s Small Island , but reframed with the hindsight of just how fragile belonging is, and how easily it can be withdrawn. It feels like a novel that will come to sit among the defining literary accounts of this shameful period of British history

What an electrifying and important debut. Every word is knife sharp, every emotion nuanced and every twist brilliantly turned. This devastating account of the Windrush scandal should be at the top of everyone's 2026 Must Read list

With Smallie , Eden Mckenzie-Goddard has given us a novel that will easily be one of the most important literary texts in British history. The voices are alive, and the characters feel so easily realised that they could stroll off the first few pages. With humour, love, pain and cultural connectedness, Eden has created a world that will resonate beyond the historic events that it chronicles.

Smallie is a beautiful rendering of an often-forgotten generation. With tenderness and a careful pen, McKenzie-Godard documents intimacies, not just of the Windrush scandal but the generations of those affected. Take time with this gorgeous and heartwrenching book, it is a thing to be savoured

Smallie is the poignant and powerful story of what happens when Barbados-born Lucinda Brown is ordered to leave Britain, where she has lived, loved and raised a family since 1961. It is both historical retrospective of the West Indian experience in Britain during the so-called ‘Windrush’ era, as well as heartwarming exploration of love of self, family, community and country. It is a brilliant and deeply moving debut

An enlightening and beautifully crafted story

It is not too often that the significance of someone's work strikes you between the eyes from the first page, but this is what Eden has achieved with Smallie... Smallie reminds us of what it means to unite in powerlessness and how our futures often rest in the palms of the unjust. Told with stunning language and underlining the plight of the Windrush generation in the UK, this novel is one that will live with me indefinitely.

With Smallie, McKenzie-Goddard has achieved a paradoxical feat: making a singular type of pain feel indisputably collective without sacrificing each unique aspect of such a dangerous time in recent history. Emotive, careful and wearing, McKenzie-Goddard’s grasp of language is just as strong as the effect this outstanding debut will have on every reader

A sharp, tender debut that traverses generations of one family

An important novel that rises to the challenge of accountability and modern justice. McKenzie-Goddard writes with a commanding style, both measured and flamboyant

Eden McKenzie-Goddard is a writer with Barbadian-Jamaican roots. Smallie is his first novel.