Sweetness in the Skin

A delicious debut novel about a young Jamaican girl who tries to bake her way to a better life in France.

Pumkin Patterson lives in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica, with her grandmother, who wants to improve the family’s social standing; her Aunt Sophie, who wants to take Pumkin with her to a new life in Paris; and her mother, Paulette, who wants to keep her at home out of spite.

When Aunt Sophie decides to move to France for work, she promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.

Somehow, Pumkin must find a way to raise the money to take her French exam. In a moment of ingenuity, she decides to turn her passion for baking into a true business. Selling batches of sweet-potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin begins raising the money she needs. But when her mother finds out that Pumkin wants to leave, she does all she can to sabotage her daughter’s plans.

Sweetness in the Skin is a funny and heartbreaking story about a young girl figuring out who she is, what she is capable of—and where she truly belongs.