Dialogue Books acquires Diana McCaulay’s book about ownership, land and identity

Dialogue Books has acquired Diana McCaulay’s A House for Miss Pauline — a book about ownership, land and identity.

Editorial director Hannah Chukwu acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Laetitia Rutherford at Watson, Little in an exclusive submission, and US rights have been sold to Betsy Gleick at Algonquin Books. Publication is scheduled for February 2025.

“Written in patwa-inflected prose, A House for Miss Pauline tells the story of Miss Pauline, a woman living in rural Jamaica who builds herself a house from the stone ruins of a plantation,” the synopsis says. “But her quiet ascent to security and a stone-strong home of her own is set to crumble when the stones of that house seem to grind and speak back at her.”

The synopsis adds: “On the brink of her 100th birthday, afflicted with these night terrors, Miss Pauline is forced to reckon with her life. With a sense of foreboding in her bones, she questions the rightness of her actions, and sets off on a journey that will change everything.”

McCaulay is a Jamaican environmental activist and the author of five novels. She is the winner of the Gold Musgrave Medal — Jamaica’s highest award for lifetime achievement across the arts and sciences — and twice winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region. She has also been shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, among other nominations, and is the winner of the Watson, Little 50 Prize.

For more information, see the article in The Bookseller here.