South London, 1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed.

Daphne's attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every way: lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic, and they form an intense bond. As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. But when Connie reveals that he is 'nuh land' - meaning he's in England illegally - Daphne realizes that she is dangerously entangled in Connie's fragile home life. Soon, long-buried secrets in both families threaten to tear them apart permanently.

Spanning one tumultuous decade, Jamaica Road is an emotionally expansive debut novel about race and class, the family you're born with, the family you choose and the limits of what true love can really conquer.

Author: Lisa Smith

Fiction & related items

Published on 11 June 2025 by John Murray Press (Dialogue Books) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 448 pages
198 x 129