Heralded for writing “deeply memorable . . . women” (Jennifer Senior, , Nicole Dennis-Benn introduces readers to an unforgettable heroine for our times: the eponymous Patsy, who leaves her young daughter behind in Jamaica to follow Cicely, her oldest friend, to New York. Beating with the pulse of a long-withheld confession and peppered with lilting patois, gives voice to a woman who looks to America for the opportunity to love whomever she chooses, bravely putting first. But to survive as an undocumented immigrant, Patsy is forced to work as a nanny, while back in Jamaica her daughter, Tru, ironically struggles to understand why she was left behind. Greeted with international critical acclaim from readers who, at last, saw themselves represented in , this astonishing novel “fills a literary void with compassion, complexity and tenderness” (Joshunda Sanders, ), offering up a vital portrait of the chasms between selfhood and motherhood, the American dream and reality.