A House for Miss Pauline
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A House for Miss Pauline
Narrated by:
Sasha Frost
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Narrated by:
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Sasha Frost
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By:
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Diana McCaulay
About this listen
'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©2025 Diana McCaulay (P)2025 Hachette Audio UK
words cannot describe how i feel listening to this audio book. it is a complex tanglement of grief loss and fierce fierce passion for justice and a olds to call home.
when i finished kindred for the first time i was left with this hollow empty feeling of brushing up against history, like ive gotten the spikes of the 18th century stuck in the skin of my shoulder. reading a house for miss pauline felt like history had me by the throat. this book is told through the eyes of miss pauline a 99 year old jamaican woman from mason hall. she is tormented by the shifting stones of her house, voices that groan in a language she can’t understand as her own past and the deterioration of her mind start to bleed together. miss pauline is determined to get her affairs in order, but even a woman as learned, as staunch and strong as her can still be shocked at the discoveries awaiting for her.
i thought about kindred a lot while reading this book, as i mentioned before i felt the similar feelings of just how heavy black history is. when octavia butler reflected on writing the ending of kindred she said “I couldn’t really let her come all the way back. I couldn’t let her return to what she was, I couldn’t let her come back whole and that, I think, really symbolizes her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn’t leave people quite whole.” (this is in reference to dana’s loss of an arm. this is not a spoiler i promise lol) and i think this is what i held on to while listening to this book. this idea that history will always always affect us, change us, move us. the past IS the present and the future.
in africa we have a saying “i am because you were.” it’s part of the ubuntu philosophy and it’s a beautiful way to remind ourselves that we existed because THEY (our ancestors) existed first. we are one of the same. i think this idea exists threaded through the words of this novel. a constant returning to who lived before these characters and what how they came to mason hall in the first place.
miss pauline was born in 1918, to a colonised jamaica where the scars of slavery lived on in the curve and twists of her family’s bodies. the warnings of the evils that lurk in the forest, the house that belonged to the slave owner. the house where a single manacle meant for a child was found in the ruins.
but it’s not just a story about slavery (though it is- every road leads back to this.) it’s about justice. about love. about dreams. it’s about white people and their audaciousness. about men and their penchant for demanding what’s not theirs. of taking what’s not theirs. the partakes between a preacher who harms young girls and takes what is not meant for him, and a white man in the throes of a new century returns to a land that has never been his, has never claimed to be his demanding for his land back.
i really recommend listening to the audiobook voiced by sasha frost, she’s an incredible voice actor and eleven red this entire reading experience. this is such a masterpiece of a book and knowing that the author had discovered her own history and how her ancestry intertwines with slave owners i can’t imagine what that must feel like, and how cathartic writing a novel like this must’ve been like. five stars across the board, best way to start international woman’s month!
the voice acting is incredible
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