“What are Andrea Levy’s Best Books?” We looked at all of Levy’s authored bibliography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the books written by Andrea Levy and looked at their Goodreads, Amazon, and LibraryThing scores, ranking them against one another to see which books came out on top. The books are ranked in our list below based on which titles have the highest overall score between all 3 review sites in comparison with all of the other books by the same author. The process isn’t super scientific and in reality, most books aren’t “better” than other books as much as they are just different. That being said, we do enjoy seeing where our favorites landed, and if you aren’t familiar with the author at all, the rankings can help you see what books might be best to start with.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

The Top Book’s Of Andrea Levy

6 ) Never Far from Nowhere

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 4
• Amazon: 6
• LibraryThing: 5

From the author of “Every Light in the House Burnin'” comes this story of two sisters, Olive and Vivien, born in London to Jamaican parents and brought up on a council estate. They go to the same grammar school where their lives takes distinctly different paths.

5 ) Fruit of the Lemon

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 6
• Amazon: 1
• LibraryThing: 6

Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job and the perfect flatshare. Neither are that perfect. Furious when her parents retire to Jamaica, she makes her own journey there. Here she is enfolded in her Aunt Coral’s endless talk of ancestors, stretching back to Cuba, Panama, Harlem and Scotland.

4 ) The Long Song

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 5
• Amazon: 5
• LibraryThing: 2

It won both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and has sold over a million copies worldwide. With The Long Song, Levy once again reinvents the historical novel. Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her ‘Marguerite.’ Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her ‘freedom.’ It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress.

3 ) Every Light in the House Burnin’

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 3
• Amazon: 4
• LibraryThing: 3

Angela’s parents moved from Jamaica to England in 1948. Now, 20 years later, Mr Jacob is seriously ill, and moves unsteadily through the care of the NHS. As Angela tries to help her mother through the ordeal, she finds herself reliving her childhood years spent on a council estate in Highbury.

2 ) Six Stories and an Essay

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 1
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 4

From Jamaican slave society in the nineteenth century, through post-war immigration into Britain, to the children of migrants growing up in ’60s London, her books are acclaimed for skilful storytelling and vivid characters. And her unique voice, unflinching but filled with humour, compassion and wisdom, has made her one of the most significant and exciting contemporary authors. This collection opens with an essay about how writing has helped Andrea Levy to explore and understand her heritage. She explains the context of each piece within the chronology of her career and finishes with a new story, written to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.

1 ) Small Island

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 2
• Amazon: 1
• LibraryThing: 1

Returning to England after the war Gilbert Joseph is treated very differently now that he is no longer in an RAF uniform. Joined by his wife Hortense, he rekindles a friendship with Queenie who takes in Jamaican lodgers. Can their dreams of a better life in England overcome the prejudice they face?

Andrea Levy’s Best Books

Andrea Levy Review Website Bibliography Rankings