The Best of Everything cover art

The Best of Everything

Longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Best of Everything

By: Kit de Waal
Narrated by: Sara Powell
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £17.94

Buy Now for £17.94

About this listen

 **A 2025 Highlight in the Guardian, I-Paper, Prima, Irish Times, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent**
**A Bookseller '10 Titles Not to Miss' selection for April**
'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.©2025 Kit de Waal Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Motherhood Parenting & Families Relationships Women's Fiction Caribbean

Critic reviews

This is a book of such tenderness, full of pain, grief and despair and yet playful and joyful at the same time. Kit de Waal has an uncanny ability to create vivid characters with such empathy that I want to reach into the pages to hug them. I truly loved this book (Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond)
A profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power and emotional complexity (Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other)
Tender... A beautifully judged tale extolling the virtues of kindness
Affecting... a story of loneliness and sacrifice that navigates great sorrow with a remarkable lightness of touch
De Waal's tone is warm and wise... she has a knack for the small charming moment. Very moving
What a wonderful novel, bursting with life. Kit de Waal is a writer who knows all the secret longings of the human heart (Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Ordinary Time)
Beautiful. De Waal has the power to astound, to lift and console, to make life with her sentences (Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt Island)
So deeply moving. Sad and beautiful and true (Annie Macmanus, author of The Mess We're In)
Everything de Waal has written pulls at the heartstrings... tenderly explores how to build a life of meaning
A beautiful novel about kindness and found family
A beautiful novel about kindness and found family
Full of warmth, this is a joyous story about love, and what family means to each of us
Devastating and uplifting
Paulette's life story is ultimately told with deep affection and tenderness, allowing the reader to form a genuine connection with her and those around her... Life is complicated, especially when a person is tested in the way that she is. In the very best people, like this one, setbacks create resilience. There is somehow still room for hope
Paulette was such a wonderful character, giving so much and making do with so little, tough but vulnerable, as perhaps all mothers are....De Waal writes brilliantly about forgiveness without glossing over its difficulties. Paulette's relationship with Nellie is the beating heart of the book and a reminder that there are more interesting kinds of love than the ones usually celebrated in novels. (Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures and Shy Creatures)
Oozes with warmth and joy
All stars
Most relevant
Thoroughly enjoyed it
Thank you
Really got to know each of the characters
Magical
Listened to it in 1 day

The storyline

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
really lovely book nice relaxed listen it was an easy listen with a good plot

really lovely book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Even thought the story did not really go anywhere, it was a nice listen. Hiwever, it lacked depth.

Nice little story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There is so much love in this book. There is also pain and misery, just like in real life.
Love is given and received.

Heartbreakingly beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Cynical me wasn't expecting to particularly enjoy this book; often popular novelists are writing in reaction to demand and the results are not great, in my experience.
However, this was a really enjoyable listen. I could relate to the strong, working class women in the story as well as to the undiagnosed neurodivergence of the grandfather.
The author did not compromise to try to make us like the characters. At times it was hard to empathise. But that's real life. Especially for working class women.
Poor narration can ruin the experience for me. The narrator, in this case, was the best kind. So good I forgot about her and was able to lose myself in the story instead of being distracted by any irritating pronunciation or mimicry.

String working class women realistically portrayed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews