Eden McKenzie-Goddard Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Eden McKenzie-Goddard is a successful published author and podcaster.

Based out of the United Kingdom, Eden has Barbardian-Jamaican roots. The work that he does often works to focus more light on the lives of people who have been forgotten and works to bring their stories to the forefront where they can be appreciated by audiences and have an effect.

Eden co-founded a podcast in 2018 that was a top 30 music and culture podcast called ‘Don’t Alert the Stans’. The podcast has been received well and has even been commended by Complex, Apple Podcasts, Beats By Dre, and others.

McKenzie-Goddard attended the University of Westminster and graduated with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. He has worked in publishing for a decade. He is also a student of such literary minds as James Baldwin, Hanya Yanagihara, and Silvia Plath.

Smallie is a 2026 novel by Eden McKenzie-Goddard. If you have been looking for something new to read and always like to get your hands on a work by a new voice in the world of fiction, this is the perfect pick for you.

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a Sunday Times bestselling author who also praised the book, calling it ‘Gorgeous and heartwrenching’. Author Rachel Joyce (known for writing her novel The Handmade God) also had positive things to say about the work, noting that it is an ‘electrifying and important debut’ that she said should be ‘at the top of everyone’s 2026 Must Read list’.

Readers with a copy of this book get the chance to know the definition of ‘smallie’, which is an adjective. It is a Caribbean word and used in the informal sense means that it describes or relates to a person who comes from a small island or someone who could be referred to as a small islander. Knowing this definition is a helpful context that helps set the tone of the rest of the book.

The year is 1961, and Lucinda Brown is a young woman at nineteen years old. She is going to England to try and look for the father of her son, Clarence Braithwaite. The man left Barbados so that he could join up with the British Army. While on board a ship that is going to Southampton, Lucinda meets a man named Raldo.

This man gives her a look at a new life that she had never imagined before, one that could be much more free. But since she is aware of her son waiting for her at home, Lucinda decides to choose Clarence instead and stay loyal to him. But she will come to realize on her own too late that being in the war has turned him into a man that she does not recognize and that he is effectively a stranger to her now.

Fifty years pass, and Lucinda gets a letter from the Home Office. The simple message may not be much, but its impact is greater than one might expect. It could end up ripping her entire world apart. Her children decide to come together to prove that she has legally arrived. In order to do so, they are going to have to track down a man from her past that she wanted to love but instead had the misfortune of losing somewhere along the way by not taking the chance when it was offered.

Raldo is now the man who is holding the key to the entire future of her family. As readers follow along, they are about to take the ride of a lifetime in this engaging story of a family who collides with the Windrush scandal and see just how easy it can be for the past to come into our lives. Sometimes you think that you have closed the door on the past, but it’s just waiting there for you to come in again.

So many people have read this book and enjoyed it, and now it’s your turn! Author Diana Evans called this an ‘important novel’ that she says is able to rise to ‘the challenge of accountability and modern justice’, while commenting on the ‘commanding style’ that the author uses to write this story.

Author Yomi Sode known for their work ‘Manorism’ also praised the book. They have referred to it as a ‘sharp, tender debut that traverses generations of one family’. Fellow author Cherie Jones also liked the work, saying that is is a ‘brilliant and deeply moving debut’. Check it out for yourself to see what you think!