Soul Tourists by Bernardine Evaristo

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This is a crazy love story – but what genuine love stories aren’t crazy?

Stanley and Jessie are an odd couple but there is an energy that gives them authenticity, as characters and as a couple.

There are a range of formats used, some first person narrative, some couplets, some “letters” - they play off each other helping you see the different twists and turns of the narrative from different viewpoints.

At the heart of it all is Stanley’s sense of dislocation – his integration into society, he is a banker, makes him feel cut off from his roots as a “Black” man, he feels that there is a part of him that should be an outsider. Some of the attraction to Jessie’s chaotic spirit is the desire to be outside society’s norms.

However we have these dream sequences where during the road trip across Europe historical figures of “Black” origin appear and this challenges the assumptions. The history of Europe has not been as monochrome as we thought.

One of the interesting things about the BBC’s What Do You Think You Are programmes has been the stories of those of Afro-Caribbean origin - they generally had a fairly clear idea in their head that their parents, or grand-parents, arrived in the UK as part of the Windrush generation, in a one off fundamental crossing of the divide and the ocean, however the programme has often found earlier crossings – for military service, for university education as doctors or lawyers – and suddenly the story becomes more complex.

A great book for exploring issues without being “issues-based” - across Evaristo’s work you get big themes treated in a really accessible way.