Riveting Reads for Busy People

The protagonists in Watts' debut collection are typically black women in North Carolina who are making their first reckonings with grown-up cruelty, embarrassment and betrayal. In the title story, the narrator observes her parents' breakup and her father's affair with a young white woman that descends into its own infidelities. Pressed to share what she's seen, she's stunned mute: "The question that breaks your heart never wants an answer." And in "Do You Remember the Summer of Love?" a woman trying to head west and start a new life in California is waylaid by a hotel bartender, opening up a spiky commentary about how access to freedom differs across races. The success of Watts' 2017 debut novel, No One Is Coming to Save Us, prompted the reissue of this 2011 collection, first published by a small university press. It deserves the bigger spotlight. Marked by moments of rare sensitivity and humor, these stories reveal an intimate understanding of the ways that families can stay resilient amid change while being honest about the scars that change often delivers.