I'll Give You a Reason: Stories (PB) (2024)

This shimmering debut short story collection intimately explores race, identity, and the pursuit of the American Dream in the Ironbound, an immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey.

I'll Give You a Reason explores the lives of immigrants and first-generation Americans searching for their American Dream in the Ironbound, an ethnic enclave and immigrant haven in Newark, New Jersey, a place once best known for its high murder rate. This story collection illustrates the complicated beauty of Newark and the lives of its diverse residents. A young widow goes on her first date since her husband's death and finds herself hunting a bear in the woods with a near stranger. A high school student helps her mother pack up her photography studio after her classmates discover her mom's nude photos. A woman wonders why her ex keeps coming back for his last few boxes but never seems to take them. A self-conscious college student discovers a porn star who shares her name and becomes obsessed with her doppelganger's freedom and comfort with her own body.

The characters in this short story collection tread the waters of race, political unrest, sexuality and intimacy, religion, body image, Blackness, colorism, and gentrification, searching for their identities and a sliver of joy and connection.