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A House for Miss Pauline

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What to expect

*Winner of the 2025 CARICON FICTION PRIZE and shortlisted for the 2025 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE PRIZE*

'The past is uprooted, the present holds on by thread, and in the midst of it all is Miss Pauline, strong, conflicted, driven and remarkable.' Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING

'Delightful and big-hearted . . . It kept me turning pages deep into the night, and left me full of admiration at the end.' Claire Adam, Guardian

'One of the Caribbean's finest writers . . . Her novels are building blocks of the current Caribbean canon and will be read for years to come.' Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH

When the stones of her home begin to rattle and call out to her in the quiet of the night, Pauline Sinclair knows she will not live to see her 100th birthday.

From educating herself through stolen books to becoming one of the most successful ganja farmers in the area and raising a family, Pauline has lived a life on her own terms in Mason Hall, a rural Jamaican village.

Yet these whispering walls promise to topple the foundations of her security and exhume Pauline's many buried secrets, including the mysterious disappearance of the man who came to claim the very land on which she built her home, stone by stone, from the ruins of a plantation.

Compelled to make peace before she dies, Pauline decides to leave the only home she has ever known on a final, desperate mission to uncover truths she could never have imagined . . .

Lyrical, funny, eerie and profound, A House for Miss Pauline tells a timely and nuanced tale, infused with the patois and natural beauty of Jamaica, which questions who owns the land on which our identities are forged.

'History's crimes unfurl in this magical story . . . McCaulay's immaculate, breathtaking writing carries it with poise and conviction.' Lisa Allen-Agostini, author of THE BREAD THE DEVIL KNEAD

'Where has Diana McCaulay been all my reading life? . . . A profound and beautiful novel of encounters with the past and atonements in the present.' Julia Alvarez, author of THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES

Critics Review

Delightful and big-hearted . . . It kept me turning pages deep into the night, and left me full of admiration at the end. McCaulay, a born-and-bred Jamaican, wrestles with the big stuff - difficult questions about inheritance, guilt and blame - and she does it bravely, and with honesty.
Guardian
What begins as one woman's symphony of magic and loss soon unravels, stone by stone, secret by secret until we're left with nothing less than the brutal, turbulent, wild and haunted history of Jamaica itself. Miss Pauline is the dazzling heroine of our times, a cypher for uncovering the secrets her world keeps hidden even as she hides her own. The centre cannot hold, things fall apart, the past is uprooted, the present holds on by a thread, and in the midst of it all is Miss Pauline, strong, conflicted, driven and remarkable.
Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING
A vivid story of inheritance and belonging, informed by the author's own fascinating family history.
Daily Mail
History's crimes unfurl in this magical story - a story as Jamaican as the stones in the title - and Diana McCaulay's immaculate, breathtaking writing carries it with poise and conviction. This novel is poetry.
Lisa Allen-Agostini, author of THE BREAD THE DEVIL KNEAD
One of the Caribbean's finest writers . . . Her novels are building blocks of the current Caribbean canon and will be read for years to come.
Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH
Diana McCaulay, an award-winning Jamaican writer and environmental activist, possesses a Steinbeck-like social awareness of injustice and prejudice, and her prose flows with a poetic rhythm that makes it profoundly pleasing to read . . . A House for Miss Pauline is a beautiful, poetic novel that makes me want to explore McCaulay's entire back catalogue.
Irish Times
Fragile and foul mouthed, Miss Pauline is my new heroine. McCaulay peels back layers to reveal the complexity of our grandmothers. She makes me want to find every Black elder and beg for their story. A House For Miss Pauline is a lush undergrowth of a book, gazing unblinkingly at Jamaica in all its beauty and beastliness. McCaulay loves this land and her writing shows it.
Leone Ross, author of THIS ONE SKY DAY
Where has Diana McCaulay been all my reading life? . . . A profound and beautiful novel of encounters with the past and atonements in the present.
Julia Alvarez, author of THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES
McCaulay weaves an intimate family story with the history of a community and reveals how past crimes - both private and collective - resonate into the present. Told with elegant prose and the musicality of Jamaican patwah, this immersive story intrigued me, gripped me and then thoroughly enchanted me. Diana McCaulay is a fantastic storyteller.
Lisa Smith, author of JAMAICA ROAD
As it makes its points about the complex legacy of colonialism and recaps a century of life in rural Jamaica through the eyes of one fierce and enterprising woman, the novel educates and entertains. Alive with the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of Jamaica.
Kirkus
McCaulay's masterful pacing keeps readers turning the pages until the very end. Everything about the novel is charming and engrossing . . . Richly drawn, powerful characters tug at your heartstrings, bring tears to your eyes and make you laugh out loud. Above it all, McCaulay's skillful, impeccable, lyrical prose captivates instantly; readers will revel in every glorious sentence.
Booklist
Grips you from the start . . . An epic read. One that will reshape our own thoughts about family, truth and acceptance.
Caribbean Today
How do we reckon with our past when its complexities are hidden to us - history, with all its tragedies and contradictions, smothered by the Jamaican bush? This is the foundational question of A House for Miss Pauline, a beguiling novel of secrets and discoveries enriched by the tough poetry of Patois and animated by a central character you will never forget.
Gregory Norminton, author of THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY
[A House for Miss Pauline] takes you thousands of miles to places that you would never have dreamed of . . . It's a beautiful, beautiful book.
Five Books
Author Diana McCaulay
Narrator Sasha Frost
Duration 10 hours and 14 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780349704296
Format Audiobook
Publisher John Murray Press
Genre Contemporary horror and ghost stories, Modern and contemporary fiction, Speculative fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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