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WINNER OF THE SAGA PRIZE 1997: a literary award for trailblazing new Black British novelists
'A quietly outstanding work of fiction . . . an exemplary novel' Bernardine Evaristo
A shattering portrayal of family, guilt and unshakable bonds as a family's deepest secrets explosively unravel
When Anita finally returns home to London after a long absence, everything has changed.
Her father is dead, her mother is away, and she and her sister Beth are alone together for the first time in years.
They share a house. They share a family. They share a past.
Tentatively, they reach out to one another for connection, but the house echoes with words unspoken.
Dazzling and heart-breaking, Bernard and the Cloth Monkey is a searing portrait of family, a rebellion against silence and a testament to the human capacity for survival.
Selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
About the author
Judith Bryan is a writer, playwright and academic. Her first novel Bernard and the Cloth Monkey won the 1997 Saga Prize. Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in various anthologies including IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (edited by Courttia Newland and Kadija Sesay, Penguin 2000), Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond (edited by Jill Dawson and Margo Daly, Bloomsbury 2002) and Closure: Contemporary Black British Stories (edited by Jacob Ross, Peepal Tree Press 2015). Her play, Keeping Mum was produced at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, London, in 2011 (directed by Rebecca Manson Jones) for the WriteNow2 Festival of New Writing. Judith is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Hawthornden Fellow. She has taught creative writing at City Lit, Arvon, Spread the Word and to community groups. She is working on her second novel.Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora.
Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well winning the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 2020, where she also won Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart in 2020.
In 2025 she was awarded the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. Her other awards and honours include an MBE in 2009 and an OBE in 2020. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited national publications, including The Sunday Time's Style magazine.
Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with her husband.
www.bevaristo.com
Summary
WINNER OF THE SAGA PRIZE 1997: a literary award for trailblazing new Black British novelists
'A quietly outstanding work of fiction . . . an exemplary novel' Bernardine Evaristo
A shattering portrayal of family, guilt and unshakable bonds as a family's deepest secrets explosively unravel
When Anita finally returns home to London after a long absence, everything has changed.
Her father is dead, her mother is away, and she and her sister Beth are alone together for the first time in years.
They share a house. They share a family. They share a past.
Tentatively, they reach out to one another for connection, but the house echoes with words unspoken.
Dazzling and heart-breaking, Bernard and the Cloth Monkey is a searing portrait of family, a rebellion against silence and a testament to the human capacity for survival.
Selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
Report
Bernard and the Cloth Monkey is the story of navigating adulthood with the weight of a marred and difficult childhood still straining familiar relationships . . . An important contribution to the literary landscape Bad Form
