The Weight of Small Things: A Novella

When Jessica is awarded a scholarship to college in Baltimore, it feels like her ticket out of small-town Louisiana and the house she shares with her grieving, alcoholic father. But she quickly learns that starting over is never simple-especially once she meets Michael, a tattooed "townie" whose rough edges and buried hurts mirror her own. Drawn into his world, Jessica leaves Baltimore for Portland, Maine, where she must confront the legacy of her past while trying to build a life-and raise a daughter-on her own terms. Anchored in vivid and in many cases heartbreaking scenes illuminating the lives of three generations of women, The Weight of Small Things explores the obstacles to female agency, the quiet force of intergenerational trauma, and the ways love is expressed not in grand gestures, but in the daily work of showing up.