Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging

Caryl Phillips has collected writings by thirty-nine extravagant strangers: British writers who were born outside of Britain and see it with clear and critical eyes. These voices prove that English literature, far from being pure or homogenous, has in fact been shaped and influenced by outsiders for over two hundred years. The greatest literature is often born out of irreconcilable tensions between a writer and his or her society.