This month’s Reading group choice is The Long Song by Andrea Levy. It’s a fine book to come out of the hat, a novel that is popular with critics and readers alike, and it received numerous nominations from Reading group contributors.

“It is brilliant,” wrote UnashamedPedant, “and not just on a first reading: it stands up to a second and third reading, and to discussion.” Good news for us.

Andrea Levy is a serious talent: her 2004 novel Small Island won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Orange prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ prize. Published in 2010, The Long Song more than lived up to its illustrious predecessor. Writing in the Observer, Kate Kellaway said Levy “moved into top gear”, writing a “seriously revealing” novel. In the Guardian, Alex Clark said: “As a story of suffering, indomitability and perseverance, [Long Song] is thoroughly captivating.”

The book was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize and won the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction. Walter Scott judges said it was “quite simply a celebration of the triumphant human spirit in times of great adversity”. It sounds like something we could do with right now. I’m looking forward to reading The Long Song, and I hope you’ll join me.

We are giving away five copies of Long Song to the first readers in the UK to post: “I want a copy please” – along with a nice, constructive comment – in the comments section below.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of the first to comment, email Laura Kemp with your address (laura.kemp@theguardian.com). Be nice to her, too.