Small Island Themes: Identity, Migration and Belonging

Several years ago a friend of mine told me about this great book she had read by an author I hadn't heard of at the time. The author was Andrea Levy and she had written several books by the time I discovered her and I went ahead and read them all. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t discovered her sooner, or how deeply the book my friend recommended, Small Island, resonated with me.

Both my friend and I are from the Caribbean diaspora and the themes in the author's book really resonated with me.

Small Island by Andrea Levy is a historical novel about Caribbean migration to Britain after the Second World War.

What Are the Main Themes in Small Island?

Set around the arrival of Caribbean migrants in post-war Britain, the book explores the emotional and social realities faced by those who crossed the Atlantic in search of opportunity. The theme of migration, and that of returning to the Mother Country, is probably the biggest. Migration from the Caribbean is usually associated with the Windrush Generation and well-documented accounts of the racism that migrants from these countries experienced. We see a lot of contrast between the life of Hortense and Gilbert, from Jamaica, and their white landlords, Queenie and Bernard.

The theme of racism and Black Caribbeans at the time seeing posters saying No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish, is something I feature in one of my books, Holding Paradise, which has almost every, if not all of the same themes that are included in Small Island. Interestingly, I did become a writer a long time after discovering Andrea Levy but my book was influenced by my mother's journey, similar to that of Hortense. So not surprisingly the other main themes of Identity and Belonging, Displacement, Marriage and Legacy shone through. And continued to in my books.

But beyond its historical setting, Small Island invites us to think about something even more personal: how identity shifts when people move between cultures, countries and generations.

How Does Small Island Explore Identity?

Migration often begins with hope. People leave one place believing they will find something better elsewhere: opportunity, stability, or simply the chance to build a different life.

Yet migration also raises complicated questions. What happens when the place you arrive in does not see you the way you see yourself? How do you hold on to your sense of identity while adapting to a new environment?

Novels like Small Island explore these tensions in deeply human ways. Through the experiences of its characters, the way they are seen by their neighbours, the paths they choose, and the ways they adapt to their new surroundings. The way identity is handled is what keeps us rooting for the characters along the way because the story is not just about history. It is also a deeply personal journey.

Why Migration Is Central to Small Island

Another reason Small Island continues to resonate is its portrayal of how migration affects more than one generation.

For those who made the journey, there was the challenge of starting again in an unfamiliar country. For their children and grandchildren, there is often a different challenge: navigating multiple identities at once.

This tension between past and present appears in many novels exploring Caribbean and Black British history. It is one of the reasons migration stories remain such powerful material for historical and women’s fiction. In my latest book series, The Hope Series, the first book, Wherever You Will Go, talks about a West Indian soldier who had fought in World War 2 wants to take his new Dominican bride to the UK where he'd been stationed in London because the Mother Country promised so much for them. In the second book, we see how the next generation is affected by the first generation's migration story.

Readers return to these stories because they reflect real experiences of belonging, displacement and cultural inheritance.

Why stories like this still matter

Novels like Small Island help readers understand history through the lives of ordinary people.

Historical events such as the arrival of the Windrush generation are often discussed in political or social terms. Fiction allows us to see the emotional side of that history. We experience it through families, friendships, marriages and everyday struggles.

These stories remind us that identity is not fixed. It evolves as people move between places, cultures and generations.

For many readers, that is what makes migration narratives so compelling. They reveal how personal identity is shaped by history.

Stories that travel across oceans and generations

As a writer, I find myself continually drawn to stories that explore migration, belonging and family history. The experiences of Caribbean communities in Britain, and the emotional journeys behind those experiences, offer powerful material for storytelling.

Many of the themes explored in Small Island continue to influence contemporary historical and women’s fiction. Questions of identity, home and cultural inheritance remain just as relevant today.

You can see some of those themes reflected in my own novels, which explore emotionally rich stories set between the Caribbean and London.

Many of my stories explore the same questions that novels like Small Island raise: how migration shapes identity, how families carry history across generations, and how people try to find a sense of belonging between two worlds.

If those themes resonate with you, you might enjoy my free novella about two strangers who meet aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948. It explores the hopes, fears and quiet courage of those making the journey to Britain. You can receive the story when you sign up to my newsletter.