Avalanche

Featured on 49th Shelf’s Most Anticipated: 2023 Fall Fiction Preview

Featured on CBC’s 2023 Fall Fiction Preview

“Things used to be easier, but even in those carefree days, the rules were in place for a reason. And that reason is: so we can all agree. So we can all have the same standard applied across the board. So there is no special treatment, which no one should receive. This is why we need the rules.”

A middle-class, white Canadian echo of The White Lotus, the stories in Avalanche combine humour with an earnest examination and indictment of white entitlement, guilt, shame, and disorientation in the wake of waking up to the reality of racism. Focusing on the perspective of white, cis, straight, mostly middle-aged and middle-class characters who lack self-awareness, Westhead shines a light on the obliviousness of white privilege, the violence of polite, quiet racism hiding just under the surface of mundane, everyday situations, and the anguished flailing of “well-intentioned white ladies” desperate to confirm their essential goodness at all costs. The author writes with compassion and empathy for both her frustrating and frustrated white protagonists and the racialized characters who encounter them, and uses humour not to comfortably distance white readers from the harmful behaviour of her self-absorbed protagonists, but to pull them in close to recognize—and reckon with—those familiar parts of themselves, and to become more aware of the insidious systems of white supremacy at work behind the scenes.

Jessica Westhead  is the author of the novels Pulpy & Midge (Coach House Books) and Worry (HarperCollins Canada), and the critically acclaimed short story collections And Also Sharks and Things Not to Do (Cormorant Books). And Also Sharks was a Globe & Mail Top 100 Book, one of Kobo’s Best Ebooks of 2011, and a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Short Fiction Prize, and Worry was included on CBC Books’ Best Canadian Fiction of 2019 and the CBC Canada Reads Longlist. Jessica lives in Toronto with her family.

“Avalanche offers no easy answers; rather it shines a glaring spotlight on white entitlement … so artfully rendered as to be quietly devastating.”—Quill & Quire, Starred Review

“What happens when white, soft liberal characters fail to put their social justice money where their mouth is? The surface playfulness in Avalanche belies a deeper seriousness about colonialism. … [As always,] Westhead excels in characters whose defining features tend to be their fear of something, be it disease, some undefinable harm to their children or the state of the world.”—Toronto Star

“Embrace being rattled by this important collection.”—The Minerva Reader

“Unpredictable, expertly crafted, and executed with deadpan wit, Westhead’s collection is a powerful and timely clarion call from one of our finest short fiction creators.”—Open Book

“Jessica Westhead pulls off something quite tricky in this collection—she somehow manages to call out the polite racism of middle-aged, middle-class white ladies, while also holding space for empathy, humour, and compassionate reckoning with unintended (but very real) harms. Playful writing collides with profound reflections on white privilege in stories that will make you laugh, make you cringe, and maybe make you see the world a little differently.”—Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis

“Westhead treats her characters with compassion. Yes, these people are deeply flawed, but isn’t that a key ingredient in the recipe for being human? That sense of wanting to do better — wanting to be better — but not necessarily understanding what that means is deeply uncomfortable … Westhead hints at the possibility of a better future, one in which we are finally able to break free from interconnecting systems of oppressions that make everything about our lives feel impossibly high-pressure and high stakes; where we arrive at a place of actual freedom.”—Ann Douglas, The Honest Talk

“The stories in [Avalanche] are honest depictions of white people living in their special bubbles of whiteness, some who think they’re not prejudiced, or bigoted or racist or privileged, which is why this book is essential. We all likely know someone personally who is just like a character in this collection, and it might even be you.”—Alison Gadsby

“Avalanche is a thought-provoking exploration of whiteness, identity, and relationship. A must-read for anyone seeking to better understand the role white people play in perpetuating systemic racism in the everyday, and how this awareness can help us work towards real change.”—Carrianne Leung, author of That Time I Loved You

“These stories capture the terror, wonder, and absurdity of life with deadpan precision—hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.”—Lynn Coady, author of Watching You Without Me

“Avalanche floored me. Droll and heartbreaking, these gorgeous stories are filled with hapless white people who struggle to be socially appropriate and fail in spectacular, often hilarious ways. Jessica Westhead has always been a brilliant stylist; with Avalanche she displays a thrilling aptitude for high-stakes humour.”—Greg Kearney, author of The Desperates

Praise for Jessica Westhead:

“Westhead’s writing is infused with a generosity that is infectious: It draws a reader in and demands an emotional accounting.”—Steven W. Beattie, The Globe & Mail

“Westhead brings empathy and humour to everyday absurdities with believable and recognizable characters.”—Elizabeth Mitchell, Toronto Star

“Jessica Westhead is one of the finest prose writers in this country.”—Zoe Whittall, bestselling author of The Best Kind of People

“In Worry, Jessica Westhead deftly plumbs the anxiety that can arise from attachment. This compelling novel explores not only the tensions between dependence and freedom, but also the tricky, shifting nature of love itself.”—Meg Wolitzer, bestselling author of The Interestings

“…unsettling, endearing, funny, sad, surprising and all else. In short, it’s stunning short fiction.”—Mike Landry, Telegraph-Journal

“The narrative tone of voice is deftly comic…but the settings and situations are emphatic about the gnawing difference between one’s high expectations for life and what actually comes to be.”—Brett Josef Grubisic, Vancouver Sun

“Each story presents itself with a dilemma to the reader: Will I empathize, look past the human error? Or will I shake my head and become a judge of character? This duality is made even more difficult—but entertaining—by Westhead’s humour, which leaves the reader unsure whether to laugh the story off or feel a sense of shame for laughing at all.”—Erica Lenti, The Winnipeg Review