Lucy is nineteen, a vinegary, quick-tongued au pair from the West Indies who has left behind her island girlhood for a fierce awakening in urban North America. At first she is dazzled by her employers, Lewis and Mariah, their four storybook daughters, and thier perfect marriage. Yet almost at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in this beautiful facade. Even as she scrutinizes Lewis's and Mariah's lives, Lucy is beginning to unravel the mysteries of her own sexuality, confronting bitter and haunting memories of her past. Gradually she begins to untangle disarmingly complex feelings for the most important figure in her life, her mother, whom she both cherishes and scorns. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a captivating heroine possessed with adamantine clearsightedness and ferocious integrity. "Lucy" is Kincaid's most beguiling and powerful work to date, a fitting successor to her highly acclaimed first novel, "Annie John."