The Big Town Read - Kit de Waal

Paulette, a 29-year-old auxiliary nurse, dreams of love, marriage and a gingham quilt for the baby’s cot. That dream is tragically shattered; but giving her baby the best of everything becomes her life’s meaning. So why does she lie awake at night worrying about Nellie, the boy being raised by his grandfather a few streets away?

Longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, de Waal’s sixth book is as full of heart as her 2016 debut My Name Is Leon: her writing as warm, wise, funny and moving; her characters so vivid you want to reach into the pages to hug them. “A story about kindness that will break your heart, then make it sing,” says author Donal Ryan. 

In this National Year of Reading, when we are all being urged to rediscover the joy of reading, we encourage you to share The Best of Everything with your book group, family and friends before coming along to meet the author in September.

The Big Town Read is run in association with Wiltshire Libraries. Copies of the book will be available in Marlborough Library and in local cafés from mid-June, and reading group questions will be on the LitFest website from late July.