"The past will offer no bridge towards a future for you"
"A lonely man adrift in the world, who didn't yet understand how vulnerable he was

Love, life, hopes and dreams, failures, losses and mistakes..

Another Man in the Street is a superb read.

This primarily the tale of Victor Johnson who travels to England from St Kitts in the 1960s with a belief of success and dreams in a promised land.

This is a non-linear story and weaves back and forth between key moments in Victor's life and the people around him; Ruth his partner of many years; his wife Lucy and mother to his son Leon; Peter the man who escaping his own darker past places his belief in Victor to join him in a world of dubious business and Claude who publishes a weekly newspaper - West Indian News.

Everyone is running from something in the hope of a better life but as the stories of the group interweave and unravel tragedies and regrets come to the fore-Victor's search for happiness, recognition are not easily achieved as he runs from the past and cannot find an inner peace in this land of exile.

It is the stories of all the characters that make this such rich novel. Ruth is the character that grabs you as a reader- her desire for love and her support for Victor and the price she pays.

A moving and powerful read - with the desires of many to still travel to England to fulfil their dreams- the story is as relevant to life now and the challenges facing so so many as it was over the last seven decades.

The story starts out With “a man” on a ship leaving his home St Kitts to come to England with the intention of starting a new life. He’s left behind his family, although he didn’t get along with his father, and his friends. As a presumedly black man (no we’re in the story mentions colour except for Lucky) he’s hoping that he’ll be treated fairly based on his worth and not by the colour of his skin, but he is soon to learn that this is not the case.

Apparently, the story is based around a character called Lucky and his exploits in finding somewhere to live and work. But the narrative seems to be from the perspective of “a man” and how his life is turning out. He is initially following lucky around because they work together in Mr. Wilson‘s pub. But it seems that when Lucky met up with Mr Feldman they had “the man“ assaulted. So, once he recovered two weeks later, he went to the pub where there was no longer a job to him, and he ended up going back to Liverpool. There he falls in love with Betty and it’s written that 10 years later they have a son and a daughter aged eight and six respectively.

I think this book could’ve been written in a far better way to help the reader find context within it. The chapters are much too long and the paragraphs would have been better as a chapter. This is because the paragraphs are also too long in themselves. The paragraphs could’ve been titled and dated for context because the book has you going backwards and forwards and you really don’t know where you are whilst reading the book. I found myself re-reading old paragraphs to figure out the date and timeline of the paragraphs to get an idea of what the characters were actually going through. A lot of it is repeated within the flashbacks and also in the flash forwards. So it was a terribly hard and difficult book to read as it didn’t make any sense because of the layout of the paragraphs. I feel this book should really go back to the editors for rewriting, only then will this book be actually quite good because it does have good content in places and the context of the book is good.

Anything set in London is up my street it is my favourite place in the world so this is one star right away. This is novel that captures time and place well but I felt it read more like a short novel it was well written but I felt it needed padded out in areas. It is however beautifully written with a flair and style.

Wow! What an amazing read. Thank you for the advanced copy of this book, I cannot get it out of my head.

We find ourselves thrown back in time to the 1960s. We see a young man leave St Kitts and go to England. Throughout his journey we are introduced to a plethora of characters, each with excellent character development. We see how each characters lives become intertwined and we get to see how each person plays a big part in each others lives.

What an excellent book.

Beautifully written tale of Victor who leaves his homeland of St. Kitts to try his luck in England.

This is England of the 1960s, post Windrush. The story has Victor as the main character but introduces others with whom he interacts. We hear their stories too and these are interesting and moving. Lorna is his wife whom he left behind in St Kitts, Peter is a Polish Jew who gives Victor a job, and who has his own story of being an immigrant, Ruth is Peter’s English girlfriend who leaves him for Victor.

I found every character’s story really engaging. I loved the way they interlocked and went back and forth in time. I enjoyed it so much I finished it in a long afternoon’s reading. I had never read Caryl Phillips before but will be checking out his previous work.

I read a proof copy provided by NetGalley and the publishers. Recommended.

Victor arrives in England from St Kitts in mid-1960’s England - the novel follows his life and career to the present day.

Firstly, let’s praise the prose, which achieves a lot with its simple, first person narrative. Structurally, is where the novel’s ambition falls short. Our sympathies are with Victor in the early part of the novel, which switches when we learn more of his character in the final third. The narrative flashes back and forth and often, scenes break for decades to pass.

The characters are well drawn (I particularly like Victor’s first British friend, a Scouse barman), but the author dispenses with them far too quickly. And again, it follows the recent trend of short, literary novels where the construction seems more important than the actual substance.

It’s pitched as a post-Windrush novel of black British experience, but it is too brief, too inconclusive and on the edge of perfection to completely be that. It’s published by Bloomsbury on 16th Jan, 2025 and I thank them for a preview copy. #anothermaninthestreet.