Winner of the Encore Award

In 1971 the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a place too small to find on a map and one of the last paradisical outposts of the Empire, were suddenly evicted from their homes to make way for a US military base.

A trenchant critique of modern civilization, A Lesser Dependency movingly describes how one family’s tropical heaven became hell.

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"This is polemic touched with poetry. Benson’s gift is to capture in strong visual terms the earth-based intuition of those 'dropped in the sand and tuned to the rhythms of tiny island life.' " - The Sunday Times

"The lack of adornment lends the novel the directness of a folk-tale and sharpens its sting." - The Independent

"A powerful political novel which makes its case all the more forcefully for being so restrained." - The Guardian

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Read an excerpt from A Lesser Dependency

Follow author Peter Benson on twitter @TwoCowsBenson

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