- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Fig Tree; 1st ed edition (29 Mar 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670916374
- ISBN-13: 978-0670916375
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 281,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Two Caravans
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Her last book was entertaining, but this one is better…Very buoyant, witty and informative (Peter Kemp The Sunday Times )
A great romp…with considerable heart and winsomeness (Literary Review )
Another black comedy masterpiece…an extraordinary, surprisingly funny tale (Easy Living )
Lewycka's heartfelt and funny novel packs as big a punch as any hard-hitting political polemic (Daily Mail )
Another winner from the author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Woman and Home )
Marina Lewycka has pulled off another story with a big heart (Daily Express )
An extremely funny book (Times Literary Supplement ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
A great romp…with considerable heart and winsomeness (Literary Review )
Another black comedy masterpiece…an extraordinary, surprisingly funny tale (Easy Living )
Lewycka's heartfelt and funny novel packs as big a punch as any hard-hitting political polemic (Daily Mail )
Another winner from the author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Woman and Home )
Marina Lewycka has pulled off another story with a big heart (Daily Express )
An extremely funny book (Times Literary Supplement ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
In the idyll of the English countryside, on a beautiful summer's evening in a Kent field, and around their two caravans, a little group of strawberry pickers is getting ready to celebrate a birthday. But who picks our strawberries these days? The Ukrainians: Irina, just off the coach from Kiev, and eager to improve her excellent English and find true love with a romantic Englishman; Andriy, the miner's son from the other Ukraine; the Poles: Bob Dylan fan, Tomasz, (whose smelly trainers will soon punish those in the men's caravan), Yola, the petite, voluptuous gangmistress and her religious niece Marta, who finds the wild mushrooms to cook with the sliced loaf; then there is Vitaly, king of the new mobilfon world of the shiny new Eastern Europe; two Chinese girls; Emanuel, the round eyed eighteen-year-old from Malawi, come to England to look for his sister. And although he can't exactly help pick strawberries, there's also the Dog...But these are a group leading dangerous lives - exploitative employers, British regulations and gang masters with guns will all threaten their existence as they take to the caravan road until each of them peels off to find their destiny. Hilarious, gritty, moving, and slapstick by turns, "Two Caravans" has every bit of the extraordinary distinctiveness and wit and heart that made "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" so successful.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
There is a field - a broad south-sloping field sitting astride a long hill that curves away into a secret leafy valley. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
There is a field - a broad south-sloping field sitting astride a long hill that curves away into a secret leafy valley. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is dedicated to the Chinese migrant workers who died in Morcambe Bay several years ago which is a very touching gesture, showing the vulnerability of any illegal migrant worker, which includes many of the characters in the book.
I loved reading the odd preconceived ideas that the characters had of English people before they had got to know many and wondered whether much of this had been from the authors own experiences within the Ukrainian community.
There was also loads of action through the book which kept me tied to the page.
I had big expectations of "Tractors" before I read it due to the award nominations and publicity it had received and was ultimately disappointed. This book had not received a huge amount of publicity and I enjoyed it tremendously (not sure whether that is a genuine comment about the quality of the book or about measurement against expectations....)
The humour that was brought in was very clever, particularly considering the desperate working and living conditions.
A character from "Tractors" cleverly features in this book, although this was in no way a sequel.
The only disappointing part was the last 30 or so pages when the evironmental warrior characters are introduced. It seemed to me this was too late in a book to introduce a completely new set of people without the opportunity to develop them in any way - maybe the next book will be based around them.....
I loved reading the odd preconceived ideas that the characters had of English people before they had got to know many and wondered whether much of this had been from the authors own experiences within the Ukrainian community.
There was also loads of action through the book which kept me tied to the page.
I had big expectations of "Tractors" before I read it due to the award nominations and publicity it had received and was ultimately disappointed. This book had not received a huge amount of publicity and I enjoyed it tremendously (not sure whether that is a genuine comment about the quality of the book or about measurement against expectations....)
The humour that was brought in was very clever, particularly considering the desperate working and living conditions.
A character from "Tractors" cleverly features in this book, although this was in no way a sequel.
The only disappointing part was the last 30 or so pages when the evironmental warrior characters are introduced. It seemed to me this was too late in a book to introduce a completely new set of people without the opportunity to develop them in any way - maybe the next book will be based around them.....
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book could have been great.I was completely wowed until about half way through when, as other reviewers have mentioned, most of the main characters disappear. At this point the story becomes a overly drawn-out love story between two characters. I was left feeling that Lewycka had two novels to write and tried to squash them unsuccessfully into one. The first was the better novel, a study of immigrant life in the UK. There are some really fascinating and humorous parts to this novel - the views of the immigrants on their new surroundings, their impressions of each other, the exploitation of workers etc. and the part about chicken farming will stay with me forever. The second novel was about the meetings of old and new Ukraine in the characters of Irena and Andriy. Also potentially very interesting, but perhaps not a funny read. I feel very disappointed for Lewycka. She has a lovely, engaging writing style and has some very interesting ideas, but this novel just ends up an incoherent jumble of ideas. Don't even start me on the not-very-scary, may-turn-up-anywhere gangster baddie!!!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I liked the Tractors very much, but I found Two Caravans to be a let down. The story goes all over the place and is not particularly funny. Some characters seems to disappear from the storyline whereas others keep coming back. Bits of the story are told from the Dog's point of view in "Dog language" others through the letters that a young African man sends to her sister, in his own quirky English. It just didn't work for me. It feels that throughout the story the writer was trying to hard at being funny. One good point about the book is that it gives a good insight as to what the (under)world of illegal workers is like in England these days.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing
The back cover promised a humorous read, but this just wasn't funny. Nor was it a particularly good story. Read more
Published 25 days ago by M MYDDLE
Revealing yes, funny no
Even the author and critics must have wondered how they could turn the lives of immigrant workers in Kent in to a novel but the idea and the beginning left me rather curious. Read more
Published 10 months ago by H de Fanque
Good read. Weirdly lighthearted
I found the book easy to keep reading as I was intrigued. not as good as a brief history of tractors, but still not bad. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dan Santoni
veery good book
I just wanted to say, I loved reading this book and finished it in 3 days. Its so interesting you cant take your eyes off it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by tamta
'British' Black Comedy
Loved this book. It's written in the voices of all the characters (including a dog) who are involved in migrant working in the UK. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Maria
I'm not sure if I liked it or not!
This is my first book by this author, so obviously I had no expectations. I liked the style of writing, switching from one story teller to the next. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Wren
Entertaining and thought provoking
I picked this up having not particularly enjoyed the Ukrainian Tractors book, but thinking I'd give the author a second go. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Gulfax
Two Caravans
Very very good price, item in excellent condition, exactly as described. Item arrived in under 24 hours! Would definately recommend and will use again.
Published 17 months ago by BEN
Not as Good as Tractors
I came to buy Two Caravans after reading, and very much enjoying, Lewycka's first novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mrs Mitten
enjoyable
This book was OK, not spectacular but not a book you want to abandon either.
It's about migrant workers who initially begin work in strawberry fields in England. Read more
It's about migrant workers who initially begin work in strawberry fields in England. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Julie Barnard
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