Showing results by author "Jessica Westhead" in All Categories

Jessica Westhead's Worry, pitched as a novel for listeners of Little Fires Everywhere and Truly Madly Guilty, is about an anxious, overprotective mother who brings her four-year-old daughter to the remote family cottage of the woman who has been her best friend - and her husband's best friend - for years, and where over 48 tension-filled hours, old and new resentments surface alongside a mother's constant worry for her child and the appearance of a mysterious neighbor.

The stories in Avalanche combine humor with an earnest examination and indictment of white entitlement, guilt, shame, and disorientation in the wake of waking up to the reality of racism. Focusing on the perspective of white, cis, straight, and mostly middle-aged and middle-class characters, this collection shines a light on the obliviousness of white privilege, the violence of polite, quiet racism hiding just under the surface of mundane, everyday situations, and the anguished flailing of "well-intentioned white ladies" desperate to confirm their essential goodness at all costs