by Gayl Jones
First published 2024
This collection opens with two novellas before moving through ten shorter pieces that span continents and centuries. In "Butter," Jones crafts one of her signature multi-part narratives, while "Sophia" explores different terrain entirely. The stories move between South America, Mexico, and the United States, following characters whose work defines them: a spy navigating dangerous territory, a photographer capturing moments that reveal more than intended, a playground designer whose creations reflect deeper longings. Jones writes about a cartoonist whose drawings become political statements, baristas whose daily encounters expose larger truths, workers whose labor connects to revolution. Her narrators include Black, Brown, and Indigenous voices, each carrying desires that conventional society struggles to understand. The collection shifts between hyper-realistic portraits and mystical elements, from traditional story structures to brief, powerful fragments. At its center lies the tension between individual identity and collective belonging, between personal dreams and political realities, in a world where multiple cultures, ethnicities, and races intersect in ways both beautiful and painful.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, american-fiction, african-american, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: diverse-voices, fragmented-narrative, social-commentary
Setting: Mexico, South America, United States
Period: 21st Century
200 pages · Paperback · Beacon Press