| Author/Contributor(s): | Cain, Lila |
| Publisher: | Dafina |
| Date: | 4/28/2026 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Condition: | NEW |
A 2025 GREAT GROUP READS Selection by the Women’s National Book Association.
Jamaica 1768: On a terrifying night, Daniel and his young sister, Pearl, narrowly escape their brutal life of slavery when a 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 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 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.