About this item
Highlights
- A new novel about the enduring trauma of police brutality by the award-winning author of Mother Country She'd gotten no trigger warning.
- About the Author: Jacinda Townsend is the author of Mother Country, winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and Saint Monkey, winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize.
- 360 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
About the Book
A new novel about the enduring trauma of police brutality by the award-winning author of Mother CountryBook Synopsis
A new novel about the enduring trauma of police brutality by the award-winning author of Mother Country
She'd gotten no trigger warning. And her entire life, she wanted to scream now, had deserved a trigger warning. Early in life, Ruth survived a series of devastating events: Her little brother died from a childhood illness, her mother died of grief, and then her father was shot by the police right in front of their home. In the years following her father's murder, Ruth pushes her past underground. She changes her name and moves to Kentucky, marries a man named Myron, and together they raise a kid. It's been two decades, and she is, by outside measures, living a good life--but why doesn't it feel good? When her marriage comes to a sudden end, their house burns down in the middle of the night, and she learns that her estranged sister has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Ruth is jolted back into action. She flees again, this time back to her home state of California, with her nonbinary teenager in tow, perhaps ready at last to face her pain and retrieve her former self. Searing, surprisingly witty, and deeply human, Trigger Warning is a novel about the durational aftermath of anti-Black police violence. Through the perspectives of Ruth and Myron, and those of their friends and their child, Townsend explores divorce and desire, the heartbreaking brevity of parenting, the push and pull of old friendships, and the possibility, after incredible trauma, of reconnecting to what makes us feel alive.Review Quotes
"Ruth, the embattled heroine of Jacinda Townsend's irresistible new novel, has endured more tragedy than most mere mortals can stand. When the losses of the past come thundering back, she takes to the road, heartbreak and roaring flames in her rearview mirror. Landscapes may change, she realizes, but grief, like time, is ever-present and unrelenting. Complicated, contradictory, and compelling, Ruth gives the phrase 'ride-or-die' an unforgettable new dimension."--Jabari Asim, author of Yonder
"Jacinda Townsend once again captivates with the intricate tale of the Hurleys--a seemingly ordinary family grappling with deeply buried traumas, fractured relationships, a turbulent divorce, and the complexities of teenage dysphoria. In this searing and unflinching exploration of identity and country, Trigger Warning offers a poignant and profound reminder: a better life is forged by facing each moment with the full spectrum of emotions it demands."--Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last
"Townsend's lush sentences sweep and dive and crawl into the very soul of a reader. In Trigger Warning, she gives us an unleashed salt-of-the-earth Ruth whose regrets are sometimes too hard to carry and whose desires for change, for novelty, for freedom, are immediately recognizable. With deliciously paced revelations, Townsend builds Ruth as a woman with a haunted past whose willingness to embrace a terrifyingly unpredictable future makes her the tough and tender literary heroine we need at this time."--Lauren Francis Sharma
"Townsend's lush sentences sweep and dive and crawl into the very soul of a reader. In Trigger Warning, she gives us an unleashed salt-of-the-earth Ruth whose regrets are sometimes too hard to carry and whose desires for change, for novelty, for freedom, are immediately recognizable. With deliciously paced revelations, Townsend builds Ruth as a woman with a haunted past whose willingness to embrace a terrifyingly unpredictable future makes her the tough and tender literary heroine we need at this time."--Lauren Francis Sharma
About the Author
Jacinda Townsend is the author of Mother Country, winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and Saint Monkey, winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. She teaches at Brown University.