A delicious debut novel about a teenage girl in Jamaica who attempts to bake her way to a better life in France
Pumkin Patterson is a thirteen-year-old girl living 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 is offered the chance to move to France for work, she seizes the opportunity and 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, leaving her alone with her abusive mother, and her estranged father—who turns up as lazy and conniving as ever—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 so she can free herself from her dysfunctional household and reunite with her beloved aunt in France. In a moment of ingenuity, she decides to turn her passion for baking into a true business. Making batches of sweet-potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin raises the money she needs. But when Paulette finds out that Pumkin is going to leave for France, 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.
