Seven novels featuring multicultural London

Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City. She moved to London at eighteen to study Philosophy at University College London, followed by an MA at King’s College London. She writes for Bad Form Review, was longlisted for their Young Writer’s prize and is a London Writers Awards 2021 winner (Literary Fiction category). Her debut novel is Wandering Souls.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven favorite "novels that deal with displacement in London," including:

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

On the then-divided island of Cyprus in the 1970s, two teenagers, one a Greek Cypriot the other a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. There, a fig tree bears witness to their growing love, and their ultimate departure – war breaks out, and the capital is destroyed.

Years later, a Ficus tree grows in Ada’s back garden in London, the only connection she has to an island – and past – she knows little about. A troubled teenager, Ada is given a school assignment which leads her to untangle her family’s troubled history.

Dealing with war and its aftermaths, loss, love, and also the environment, The Island of Missing Trees is a wonderful tale about belonging and longing for a home you don’t know.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue