Sweetness in the Skin

Robinson’s vivacious debut follows a Jamaican teenager who weighs her Kingston roots against the prospect of an exciting new life in France. Pumkin Patterson, 13, lives with her dressmaker grandmother Cecille, her beloved and ambitious aunt Sophie, and her abusive, alcoholic mom Paulette. After Cecille dies suddenly and Sophie moves out, Pumkin sets her sights on following her aunt to Paris. To do so, she must gather enough money to pay a private language academy for lessons that will help her pass the French school entrance exam. With no hope of help from her mother, who disappears for days at a time, Pumkin draws on her talent for baking, selling her wares at school and at a local shop. After she befriends a wealthy classmate at the academy, her mother and an old friend from her neighborhood painfully and derisively label her “stoosh” (pretentious), prompting her to hide her new life from her home life and vice versa. Robinson’s clear eye for class and color discrimination extends to the parallel narrative of Sophie, who breaks up with a Jamaican lover in France because of his darker skin and patois, an act that throws Pumkin’s trajectory into stark relief. This perceptive coming-of-age novel marks Robinson as a writer to watch. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Apr.)