-
See Our Best Book
Club Books of 2026!
The Memoir of a Brixton Reggae-Head
by Alex Wheatle
In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed author Alex Wheatle details how reggae music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse, imprisonment, and police brutality,
Abandoned as a baby to the British foster care system, Alex Wheatle grew up without any knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Preoccupied with his own roots, Alex grew inexorably drawn to reggae music, which became his primary solace through years of physical and mental abuse in a children's home.
Although riven by loneliness and depression, Alex found joy and empathy among his reggae heroes: Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Marcia Griffiths, the Mighty Diamonds, Sister Nancy, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, King Yellowman, and so many others. These were friends and mentors who understood the enormous challenges facing a young Black man, gave purpose to despair, provided a sense of belonging when Alex had no one, and who educated him in ways no school ever could. From the abuse he suffered in foster care, to the challenges he faced on the streets of South London as a young man and his eventual imprisonment for participating in the legendary 1981 Brixton uprising against racial injustice, reggae music always provided a lifeline to Alex.
Alex's life story was portrayed in Oscar Award–winning director Steve McQueen's 2020 Small Axe. In Sufferah, he vividly tells his own story, putting the reader in his shoes through the many challenges of his younger years, answering the question: how on earth did he make it? By his example we are reminded that words can be our sustenance, and music can be our heartbeat.
"A striking tribute to reggae's ability to protect a fragile soul when seemingly everything else had failed him." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Readers will be drawn to Wheatle's exquisite prose, and lovers of music will appreciate how reggae brings light during difficult times."
—Library Journal
"Novelist Wheatle (Brixton Rock) considers in this inspiring autobiography how reggae music helped him endure childhood abuse and connect with his heritage ... His journey from orphan to self-possessed storyteller is by turns gripping and heartbreaking."
—Publishers Weekly
"Alex Wheatle's Sufferah is a moving account of one writer's indomitable will to overcome the odds stacked against him. Tender, hilarious, and deeply felt, this memoir places Wheatle's experiences in foster care and incarceration within a larger context of racism in the UK and dovetails with his coming of age as a lover of reggae music. What a gift to witness Wheatle's journey to find and forgive his birth family and to make a life and family of his own."
—Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill
"Alex Wheatle's great mission is to make 'sufferahs' visible and represent them in his art. With this insightful memoir, which mixes music with memory, he has done exactly that."
—C.J. Farley, author of Zero O'Clock
This information about Sufferah was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alex Wheatle is the author of several best-selling books including the young adult novels Kemosha of the Caribbean, Cane Warriors, and Home Girl, the modern classic Brixton Rock, and the multiaward-winning Crongton series. He is the subject of the historical drama film Alex Wheatle, which is part of filmmaker Steve McQueen's critically acclaimed anthology series Small Axe. His body of work was a finalist for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
The Sister's Curse
by Nicola Solvinic
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
 (1).gif)
Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
