Author Andrea Levy, who "gained wide recognition as a writer with the publication of her fourth novel, Small Island, in 2004," died February 14, the Guardian reported. She was 62. Small Island won the Orange Prize, Whitbread Prize, Commonwealth Literature Prize, and was later voted the Best of the Best Orange Prize novels. It was adapted into a 2009 BBC TV series, and this May the National Theatre is scheduled to mount a stage version.
Levy's previous novels "had gathered a smaller circle of admirers who had a particular interest in the experience of Caribbean immigrants in Britain," the Guardian noted. Those works include Every Light in the House Burnin'; Never Far from Nowhere; and Fruit of the Lemon. Her 2010 novel The Long Song was awarded the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Jane Morpeth, Levy's longtime editor, told the Bookseller: "I was incredibly honored to call her my friend. As her editor for Small Island, The Long Song and Six Stories and an Essay, I was so proud to watch her win prizes, be read by millions of people and reshape the literary world around her.... Her legacy is unique and her voice will be heard for generations to come. I miss her."
Mari Evans, managing director of Headline, noted that Levy's "extraordinary writing is woven into the fabric of Headline's publishing history and will continue to infuse the spirit of our future publishing. Her novels have perhaps never been more relevant or important in their questioning of identity and belonging. May we continue to learn the lessons so elegantly laid out by one of the greatest novelists of her generation."
Kate Mosse, co-founder of the Women's Prize, said: "Believing in the profound ability of fiction to change hearts and minds, Andrea brought to that process the same fierce intelligence, joy of language, wry wit, clarity of thought and uncompromising humanity that characterizes her writing.... she was a brilliant, principled, inspirational writer--one of the most important literary voices of our time."
In a tribute to Levy, friend and writer Gary Younge observed: "It always felt to me as though Andrea became more driven the closer she came to the end. Keen to broaden the British historical gaze beyond its borders, particularly to the Caribbean, she became increasingly frustrated with the limited and limiting imaginations of media gatekeepers when it came to the Caribbean and slavery. Resolving to use the currency she had now gained to expand our historical literacy, she pushed at every meeting and every level for a fuller, more rounded, more inclusive version of our national story. Britain has lost a great author. I have lost a dear friend."