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Patsy [large print]

Sharon Gordon

2019400 pagesabout 6–9 hours
2019
first published
  • 2019Oneworld Publications · ENGISBN 9781786076564
  • 2019Oneworld Publications · 400 pages · ENGISBN 9781786076588
  • 2019Liveright · 432 pages · ENGISBN 9781631495649
  • 2020Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage CompanyISBN 9781432873936
  • 2020Oneworld Publications · 432 pages · ENGISBN 9781786077103
  • 2020Liveright Publishing Corporation · 448 pages · ENGISBN 9781631497896
  • 2019HighBridge Audio · 2019 pagesISBN 9781684419814
  • 2019Liveright · 432 pages · ENGISBN 9781631495632

Heralded for writing “deeply memorable . . . women” (Jennifer Senior, New York Times), Nicole Dennis-Benn introduces readers to an unforgettable heroine for our times: the eponymous Patsy, who leaves her young daughter behind in Jamaica to follow Cicely, her oldest friend, to New York. Beating with the pulse of a long-withheld confession and peppered with lilting patois, Patsy gives voice to a woman who looks to America for the opportunity to love whomever she chooses, bravely putting herself first. But to survive as an undocumented immigrant, Patsy is forced to work as a nanny, while back in Jamaica her daughter, Tru, ironically struggles to understand why she was left behind. Greeted with international critical acclaim from readers who, at last, saw themselves represented in Patsy, this astonishing novel “fills a literary void with compassion, complexity and tenderness” (Joshunda Sanders, Time), offering up a vital portrait of the chasms between selfhood and motherhood, the American dream and reality.

How it feels

Emotional toneUnflinching
AtmosphereBleak

How it reads

Plot intensityCharacter driven
Character focusSmall ensemble
ComplexityLayered

When and where

ThemesFamily
How do you feel?