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The Best of Everything: Longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction
Kit de Waal
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'A profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-Winning author of Girl, Woman, Other
'So deeply moving: sad and beautiful and true' Annie Macmanus, author of The Mess We're In
Paulette's the kind of woman who likes the future all mapped out: the wedding to Denton, the Caribbean honeymoon, the gingham quilt on the baby's crib. Until one morning Garfield, Denton's friend, arrives at her door with the news that Denton won't be coming around any more, that there won't be time for her to say goodbye.
Somehow Garfield finds his way into her bed, and sooner than anyone can believe there is a baby, and suddenly giving Bird, her son, the best of everything is what gives Paulette's life meaning.
So why is it another little boy, Nellie, who keeps Paulette awake at night? Nellie who is being raised a few streets away, with no sign of a mum. Surely Paulette is the last person who should be getting tangled up in any of that?
The Best of Everything is a novel about the love that can steal into our lives - in spite of the best laid plans.
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Praise for The Best of Everything: Longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction
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De Waal takes an ordinary life and renders it extraordinaryBeautiful, composed with such tenderness, empathy and love - Donal RyanTender. A beautifully judged tale extolling the virtues of kindness - GuardianA beautiful novel about kindness and found family - Mail on Sunday
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