No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts

The circumstances of her characters are vastly unlike Fitzgerald’s, and those differences are what make this novel so moving.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times “Watts’s book envisions a backwoods African-American version of The Great Gatsby. She’s unusually deft with dialogue… conveyed in a prose style that renders the common language of casual speech into natural poetry, blending intimate conversation with the rhythms of gossip, town legend, even song lyrics.An indelible story.” - Washington Post “Watts writes about ordinary people leading ordinary lives with an extraordinary level of empathy and attention.The novel’s intricately plotted relationships pay off satisfyingly in its final chapters.” - New York Times Book Review In evocative prose, Stephanie Powell Watts has crafted a full and stunning portrait that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family. No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice: with echoes of The Great Gatsby it is an arresting and powerful novel about an extended African American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream. Can they reorient their lives to align with their wishes rather than their current realities? Or are they all already resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? The ostentatious wealth that JJ has attained forces everyone to consider the cards they’ve been dealt, what more they want and deserve, and how they might go about getting it. JJ’s return-and his plans to build a huge mansion overlooking Pinewood and woo Ava-not only unsettles their family, but stirs up the entire town. And Don, Sylvia’s unworthy but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around. Ava’s mother, Sylvia, caters to and meddles with the lives of those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. Her husband, Henry, has grown distant, frustrated by the demise of the furniture industry, which has outsourced to China and stripped the area of jobs. Ava is now married and desperate for a baby, though she can’t seem to carry one to term. But as he reenters his former world, where factories are in decline and the legacy of Jim Crow is still felt, he’s startled to find that the people he once knew and loved have changed just as much as he has. JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina, to build his dream house and to pursue his high school sweetheart, Ava. NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2017 BY Entertainment Weekly

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 BY The Washington Post *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 WILLIE MORRIS AWARD FOR SOUTHERN FICTION* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING* *THE INAUGURAL SARAH JESSICA PARKER PICK FOR BOOK CLUB CENTRAL* *WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL*

No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts