Set in the heart of rural Jamaica, A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE (Algonquin Books), from award-winning author Diana McCaulay, tells the captivating, tender tale of Pauline Sinclair—a fiercely independent 99-year-old Jamaican woman who built her own home from the ruins of a plantation. As she faces her 100th birthday, the old stones of her house begin to rattle and shift and call out mysterious messages, prompting her to reckon with long-buried secrets from her past. Lyrical, funny, eerie, and urgent, infused with the patois and natural beauty of Jamaica, A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE asks profound questions about ancestry, colonialism, and ownership of the places where our identities are forged.
This timely novel addresses nuanced questions about identity and land—and introduces an unforgettable heroine who vividly exemplifies what it means to live life on one’s own terms. Bestselling author Julia Alvarez says, “This is a profound and beautiful novel rich with encounters with the past and atonements in the present.”
- Advertisement -
The book launches this on February 25, 2025 during Caribbean Month at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn at 7 pm hosted by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival.
About Diana McCaulay
Diana McCaulay is a much-recognized Jamaican environmental activist and the award-winning author of five novels. Winner of the Gold Musgrave Medal, Jamaica’s highest award for lifetime achievement across the arts and sciences; twice Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region (in 2022 and in 2012), she has also been shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, among other nominations, and is the winner of the Watson, Little 50 Prize for unrepresented writers aged 50+. Diana was born and lives in Kingston, Jamaica, is a founding editor of Pree, an online magazine for Caribbean writing, and is currently also working on an anthology of environmental writing.
