No One Is Coming To Save Us

Set in rural North Carolina, Watts's first novel (after the award-winning short story collection We Are Taking Only What We Need) centers on the dynamics of a family struggling with strained relationships and disappointment. Sylvia carries on a phone relationship with Marcus, a prison inmate, to replace the distance between herself and her son, Devon. Ava, Sylvia's daughter, tries desperately to conceive a child and discovers a painful truth about her husband, Henry. JJ Ferguson, an old family friend, returns to town after many years away and causes disruption. Watts shares with us an often neglected segment of America—working and middle-class African Americans living in the current century—and all of the characters strive to find a balance between achieving what they want and settling for what life has dealt them. The many details of the Pinewood community ring true, particularly the contrast between the experiences of the older generation that remembers Jim Crow, and their children.