Tea by the Sea

A woman searches for the daughter who was taken from her long ago in "a powder keg of a novel, where secrets and lies explode into truth and consequences" (Marlon James, National Book Award finalist and author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf).

To find the daughter taken from her, Plum Valentine must first locate the child's father, who walked out of a hospital with the day-old baby girl without explanation. Seventeen years later, weary of her unfruitful search, Plum sees an article in a community newspaper with a photo of the man for whom she has spent half her life searching. He has become an Episcopal priest. Her plan: confront him and walk away with the daughter he took from her. From Brooklyn to the island of Jamaica, Tea by the Sea traces Plum's circuitous route to find her daughter—and explores how Plum's and the priest's love came apart.


"The forbidden love story of Plum and Lenworth comes alive in this heart-rending novel . . . heady twists and turns delivered in an urgent and beautiful prose." —Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Book of the Little Axe

"A moving portrait of identity, belonging, family, immigration, and the power of maternal love." —Washington Independent Review of Books