Sweet Pea
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power and emotional complexity.” ―Bernardine Evaristo
A beautiful portrait of a seemingly ordinary woman’s life, transformed by extraordinary love.
When Paulette arrived in England as a young girl, she left behind a grandmother in St. Kitts who called her “Sweet Pea,” taught her to cook, and admonished her to avoid temptation and embrace love and forgiveness, in that order.
Now, Paulette’s twenty-nine and within reach of her dream: a wedding, a baby, and a little house. She’s got the man, handsome Denton, and a good job as an assistant nurse. But when tragedy strikes, her baby comes from Denton’s friend, a relationship that can’t last. Soon it’s just Paulette, grieving the life she almost had, and her son, Bird. It seems like enough, until another boy, the same age as Bird, appears. Now, there’s someone new to take under wing and worry about, someone who calls her Sweet Pea and makes her laugh.
Through friendships, motherhood, and connections that emerge in the most unexpected places, Paulette discovers strength in everyday acts of kindness.
A luminous and lyrical novel of the trials of life and the compassion that can follow, Sweet Pea introduces readers to an indelible heroine who never turns away from her capacity to love.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
With a light touch, Kit de Waal’s stirring novel encompasses the human struggle to carve gratitude and happiness out of pain and disappointment. Paulette is a Caribbean woman working in London in 1972 who dreams of marrying her boyfriend, Denton. Then he’s killed in a car crash. Finding solace—but not love—in the arms of Denton’s closest friend, she bears a son named Bird. But Paulette is still carrying the pain of everything she’s lost when she encounters Frank, the man responsible for Denton’s death…as well as Frank’s grandson, Nellie. Paulette is an achingly real and imperfect main character. She makes bad choices, can be quick to judge others, and is frequently wrong. But over the course of the novel’s yearslong journey, we experience her learning, healing, and growing. As she cooks her grandmother’s recipes and reaches out to become an unlikely mother figure to young Nellie, Paulette finds wholeness in the realization that she’s not the only one struggling. Sweet Pea is a poignant listen about the tender power of forgiveness.
