Blog this item

Strawberry Fields

A Novel

By Marina Lewycka

(36)

| Hardcover | 9781594201370

Like Strawberry Fields?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Book Description

From the author of the international bestseller A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian comes a tender and hilarious novel about a crew of migrant workers from three continents who are forced to flee their English strawberry field for a journey across all of England in pursuit of their various dreams of a better future. Somewhere in the heart of the green and pleasant land called England is a valley filled with strawberries. A group of migrant workers, who hail from Eastern Europe, China, and Africa have come here to harvest them for delivery to British supermarkets, and end up living in two small trailer homes, a men's trailer and a woman's trailer. They are all seeking a better life (and in their different ways they are also, of course, looking for love) and they've come to England, some legally, some illegally, to find it. They are supervised-some would say exploited-by Farmer Leaping, a red-faced Englishman who treats everyone equally except for the Polish woman named Yola, the boss of the crew, who favors him with her charms in exchange for something a little extra on the side. But the two are discreet, and all is harmonious in this cozy vale-until the evening when Farmer Leaping's wife comes upon him and Yola and does what any woman would do in this situation: She runs him down in her red sports car. By the time the police arrive the migrant workers have piled into one of the trailer homes and hightailed it out of their little arcadia, thus setting off one of the most enchanting, merry, and moving picaresque journeys across the length and breadth of England since Chaucer's pilgrims set off to Canterbury. Along the way, the workers' fantasies about England keep rudely bumping into the ignominious, brutal, and sometimes dangerous realities of life on the margins for ŽmigrŽs in the new globalized labor market. Some of them meet terrible ends, some give up and go back home, but for those who manage to hang in for the full course of this madcap ride, the rewards-like the strawberries-prove awfully sweet-especially for the young Ukrainians from opposite sides of the tracks, Andriy and Irina, whose initial mutual irritation blossoms into love.

Critics

Strawberry Fields

La trama e le recensioni di Strawberry Fields, romanzo di Marina Lewycka e Peyo edito da Mondadori. È una serata estiva incantevole nella campagna inglese e un gruppo di raccoglitori stagionali di fragole riuniti intorno a due caravan si preparano a ... (read full critics)

Qlibri published on Wed, 24 Nov 2010

Let Them Eat Shortcake

The young woman behind the counter at the beach boutique on Block Island was blond, ponytailed and suntanned. “Can I khelp you?” she asked a male customer as he wandered in, dazed from the sun. “Whoa, where you from?” he asked. “Moldova,” was the rep ... (read full critics)

nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

See all critics

2 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

On the verge of funny and dramatic, good story nicely written

Is this helpful?

Chiaragattinoni said on Jul 27, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Hilarious and tragic at the same time, a difficult combination but once again Marina Lewycka has carried it off. Another farcical tale of Ukranians and other immigrants trying to find a better life for themselves in Englands green and pleasant land.
It starts in the Strawberry fields of Kent and a s ... (continue)

Hilarious and tragic at the same time, a difficult combination but once again Marina Lewycka has carried it off. Another farcical tale of Ukranians and other immigrants trying to find a better life for themselves in Englands green and pleasant land.
It starts in the Strawberry fields of Kent and a series of incidents lead our protagonists Andriy and Irina to Sheffield. It starts with a much larger group of immigrants but they gradually get left along the way until we are left with just the two. The original group being exploited by their employers and the criminal types that found them the work in the first place, decide to take the caravan they currently live in on the road to find their destinys. The motley group consists of Andriy, Ukrainian, son of a miner, Polish Tomasz, Vitaly, Yola, her niece Marta, all from EasternEurope, two Chinese girls, Irina who is fairly educated and is in England to improve her English, Emanuel from Malawi and of course the dog. The latter even narrates the story at times from a dogs point of view, strange but funny! It is on the road during various adventures whilst discovering the harsh realities of life that the group disperses all over England..
Among the adventures are scenes in a poultry rearing unit, which makes disturbing reading if you are overly sensitive to such unpleaseant facts. Also making a brief appearance in a nursing home adventure is the old man Nikolai Mayevskyj from the authors first novel, a clever and amusing little touch. Fishing, restaurant work, and of course the initial strawberry picking scenes are also involved in this comical but poignant view of the illegal immigrant community in England.

Is this helpful?

Lindyloumac said on Jan 24, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

Rating:
(36)
- 5 stars
- 4 stars
- 3 stars
- 2 stars
- 1 star
English Books
Hardcover 304 Pages
ISBN-10: 1594201374
ISBN-13: 9781594201370
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Pub date: Aug 16, 2007
Dimensions: 1548 mm x 1032 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
Also available as: Paperback, Audio CD and eBook
In other languages: other languages Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Libri Italiani, Ελληνικά βιβλία