SWEET PEA

The latest novel by de Waal ( My Name Is Leon , 2016) was published in the U.K. last year as The Best of Everything . It reaches these shores with a new, more memorable title that underscores the story’s folksy tenderness. “My Sweet Pea” is what Paulette’s grandmother called her as a girl on St. Kitts, raising her after the death of her mother. Paulette came to England with Granny at age 11; she was 21 when Granny returned home, leaving Paulette, now working as an auxiliary nurse at Princess Alexandria Hospital, to reminisce about her idyllic Caribbean childhood. When the novel opens in 1972,

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