Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

This is another one I read while in Charing Cross hospital. I had previously read and loved Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – US link/ UK link and had been looking forwards to Two Caravans – US link/ UK link for quite a while. It is not quite as good as Tractors but it is funny and true to life. It also has a Polish character called Marta which totally made it for me.

Two Caravans – US link/ UK link is a novel by Marina Lewycka first published by Penguin Books in 2007 for the United Kingdom market. In the United States and Canada it is published under the (better) title Strawberry Fields. The book is the story of a crew of migrant workers from three continents who are forced to flee their English strawberry field for a journey across all of England in pursuit of their various dreams of a better future. The story centres on a group of migrant workers who hail from Eastern Europe, China, Malaysia and Africa and have come to Kent to harvest strawberries for delivery to the supermarkets, and end up living in two small caravans, a men’s caravan and a women’s caravan. They are all seeking a better life (and in their different ways they are also, of course, looking for love) and they’ve come to England, some legally, some illegally, to find it. In the beginning they are supervised by Farmer Leaping, a red-faced man who treats everyone equally except for the Polish woman named Yola, the boss of the crew, who favors him with her charms in exchange for something a little extra on the side. But the two are discreet, and all is harmonious in this cozy vale – until the evening when Farmer Leaping’s wife comes upon him and Yola and in retaliation she runs him down in her red sports car. By the time the police arrive the migrant workers (and a dog called Dog) have piled into one of the trailer homes and quickly leave their arcadia, thus setting off on a journey across the length and breadth of England. It seems very well researched and some of the characterization is very well done. The problem is that there is little real narrative drive and it reads a bit episodically.