Bernard and the Cloth Monkey

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE SAGA PRIZE 1997: a literary award for trailblazing new Black British novelists

A shattering portrayal of family, guilt and unshakable bonds as a family's deepest secrets explosively unravel

When Anita finally returns home to London after a long absence, everything has changed.
Her father is dead, her mother is away, and she and her sister Beth are alone together for the first time in years.

They share a house. They share a family. They share a past.

Tentatively, they reach out to one another for connection, but the house echoes with words unspoken.

Dazzling and heart-breaking, Bernard and the Cloth Monkey is a searing portrait of family, a rebellion against silence and a testament to the human capacity for survival.

'A quietly outstanding work of fiction . . . an exemplary novel' Bernardine Evaristo

© Judith Bryan 1998 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Bernard and the Cloth Monkey is the story of navigating adulthood with the weight of a marred and difficult childhood still straining familiar relationships . . . An important contribution to the literary landscape

    Bad Form

  • [Bernard and the Cloth Monkey] crosses boundaries in what it’s prepared to talk about, and it does that without melodrama or sensationalism . . . It’s absolutely beautifully written. I was so drawn to the prose, to the rhythms of the prose

    Five Books

  • A quietly outstanding work of fiction . . . an exemplary novel

    Bernardine Evaristo

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