by Joan Silber
First published 2017
Reyna travels to Rikers Island to see Boyd during his three-month sentence. Their relationship grows stronger with each visit, even though her aunt Kiki thinks Reyna always chooses the wrong men. Kiki has settled in the East Village after years of traveling through Turkey and other countries. She watches her niece with concern but doesn't know that Boyd is drawing Reyna into a cigarette smuggling operation across state lines. The scheme could violate his probation and put them both at risk. Reyna must decide between staying loyal to Boyd and protecting her four-year-old child. When she finally walks away from the relationship, her choice triggers a chain of consequences that reaches far beyond her own life. The decision connects strangers across different places and times, showing how one person's small act of resistance can ripple outward in unexpected ways. Silber traces these connections through multiple characters, revealing how individual choices create patterns that bind people together across distance and circumstance.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, social-issues, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intimate
Setting: East Village, Rikers Island
Period: contemporary
241 pages · Kindle Edition · Counterpoint
Content warnings: addiction