Grace in the City

Grace Caton can't wait to leave behind her tiny village in Trinidad for New York City. With the right amount of wit, pluck, and determination--all of which Grace has in spades--she knows she'll conquer her new world. But from the moment she touches down, nothing goes as planned.

For starters, the aunt who promised to watch over her never shows up at the airport, leaving Grace completely on her own. Fortunately, she stumbles into a vibrant immigrant community in Crown Heights and meets eccentric new friends, like her Orthodox Jewish landlord and fellow West Indian native Kathy, who feels any outfit can be improved with a Bedazzler. Next up is getting a job: working as a nanny for the Bruckners, an upper-middle-class family in Manhattan, proves to be her best--really, her only--option. Grace adores her four-year-old charge, Ben, but the Bruckner household is a minefield loaded with outrageous hours and jaw-dropping tasks. On top of that, she has to navigate the nanny hierarchy at Union Square Park, where secrets and gossip are traded faster than wet wipes.

When Grace discovers that the Bruckners have some surprising secrets, her life becomes increasingly complicated and confusing. But friends and opportunities appear in the most unexpected places, and Grace realizes that she's living in a city--and a world--where anything is possible.

"Revealing New York's melting pot at its most complicated, this interesting first novel is told from the perspective of someone who has been there and done that. Brown drew from her personal experience as a young immigrant nanny, and her story is fascinating, tender, and heartbreaking." --Library Journal

"Brown is a new voice with much to offer." --Kirkus

"[A] touching novel." --Publishers Weekly