This week, discover Soul Tourists by Bernardine Evaristo.
SOUL TOURISTS
By Bernardine Evaristo
- Genre: Road movie
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
- Language: Anglais
- Publication year: 2005
Why should you adapt this book into a TV series ?
The unlikely pairing of the two protagonists takes you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, rooting for each in turn. A twisted mixture of rom-com and road trip – taking a mismatched couple on a journey across Europe in an old car. It is 1988, and Jessie, artiste, meets Stanley, angst-ridden banker. She lifts Stanley out of his soul-less life. He ditches his job, and together they set off across Europe. Destination — unknown. Duration — indeterminate.
What’s the story ?
Meet Stanley Williams: Single, in his thirties, grieving the death of his Jamaican father and wondering if there is more to life than his nine-to-five banking job in a sky-high glass menagerie. Enter Jessie O’Donnell: barmaid, former singer-cum-comedienne, and desperate to get into her rusty old Lady Niva and hit the freeway across Europe. The unlikely pair begin an electrifying odyssey that weaves in and out of history, colliding with the forgotten heroes of Europe’s past. Shakespeare’s mysterious ‘Dark Lady of the Sonnet’s, Pushkin and his Ethiopian great-grandfather and the mixed-race Allessandro de’ Medici of Florence are all ready to have their voices heard, and Stanley and Jessie do what they can to hang on for the ride…
Comparables
About the author
Bernardine Evaristo is a British-Nigerian author. Two of her books have been adapted into BBC Radio 4 dramas. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and Vice-Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She co-founded the Spread the Word writer development agency (1995–present) and in the 1980s, Britain’s first black women’s theatre company, Theatre of Black Women. Her novel BLONDE ROOTS (2008) won the Orange Youth Panel Award and Big Red Read Award. Her novel GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER (2019, Hamish Hamilton), was longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the 2019 Gordon Burn Prize and chosen by former US President Barack Obama as one of his 19 favourite books of 2019.
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