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The Blackbirds of St. Giles
A Historical Fiction Novel by Lila Cain
Subgenres:
- Survival,
- Family Saga
This book is for you if you're into...
- You crave stories set in London's hidden, dangerous underworld beneath Covent Garden
- You want an immersive journey from Jamaican plantations to postwar London streets
- You enjoy high-stakes survival tales with betrayal, secrets, and the fight for freedom
- You're drawn to overlooked histories and communities rarely seen in fiction
From Little Stack
One of my favourite books of last year, this story is set in a time when slavery was still commonplace and follows former slave Daniel, who arrives in London after earning his freedom. But when he loses his inheritance, Daniel is forced to take shelter in the rookeries of St Giles, a dark forbidding labyrinthine underworld filled with violence, poverty, rapscallions and marauders.
This book illustrates the dreadful truth that men, women and children faced even after they were supposedly granted their freedom. There are a number of memorable Black characters in the book but it is Daniel who stands out most of all. I was cheering him on at every step and can’t wait for the follow-up to see where life takes him next.
From the brutal horrors of Jamaican plantations to the teeming streets of 19th century London, through lavish manor houses and across dangerous seas, escaped enslaved siblings survive the American War of Independence and arrive in London to seek their fortune in this page-turning, immersive story of survival, betrayal, secrets, and the quest for true freedom.
On a terrifying night in 1768, Daniel and his young sister, Pearl, narrowly escape their brutal life of slavery when a Jamaican sugarcane plantation is torched in a violent uprising. In the ashes, Daniel leaves behind the rest of his family—and one powerful love.
More than a decade later in New York City, Daniel anticipates sailing with Pearl, now 15, to a new life promised by Britain's king to former slaves who fought for the Crown in America's War of Independence. For saving a Major's life in battle, Daniel is doubly rewarded with the man's inheritance, to be claimed on the other side of the ocean. But a king's promises can be forgotten, and fortunes snatched away by the cruel prejudices of strangers in a new land . . .
Hopeless and homeless, Daniel and Pearl are lured into a dank maze of passageways roiling beneath London's teeming streets, under the famed Covent Garden, and far below the crypts of St. Giles church. A world of unimaginable poverty, where the desperate live as outcasts—the blackbirds of St. Giles. Reigning over the scene is Elias, a ruthless, violent "boss" who sells protection for a price. To shield Pearl, Daniel must literally fight for their survival, stepping into the ring with a monstrous opponent.
Dazzling and poignant, The Blackbirds of St. Giles propels us into an extraordinary, too long overlooked community and period in history, when the threat of servitude is ever-present, and some ghosts of the past can never be escaped . . .
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