by ZZ Packer
First published 2009
A troop of black Girl Scouts encounters their white counterparts at summer camp, setting off tensions that expose the complicated realities of race and belonging. In another story, a young man accompanies his father to the Million Man March and wrestles with questions of loyalty and identity. Packer introduces readers to an international group of jobless drifters struggling to survive in Japan, and a Baltimore girl who escapes her neighborhood by watching the world through television screens in a Lithuanian immigrant's shop. The shopkeeper nurtures his own vision of American success while the girl dreams of places beyond her reach. These characters exist on society's margins, searching for their place in a world that often overlooks them. Packer captures their struggles with precise language and unexpected moments that reveal deeper truths about connection and displacement.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, african-american, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Japan, Baltimore, Lithuania
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
Hardcover · A1-Verl