Tough Girl in the Jam

Set in the fast and furious world of women’s professional roller derby, Tough Girl in the Jam is a novel about sports, strength, and sacrifice. Nina is the lead Jammer on the Philly Freedoms. Her team is practicing for a championship bout. Her new girlfriend, Rachel, is her biggest fan. As Nina and Rachel move toward a deeper commitment and start to contemplate the shape of their lives together, Nina’s estranged father falls ill. Nina’s mother pressures Nina to donate a kidney to save him. Rachel knows that agreeing will end Nina’s derby career, and will alter their lives and plans. Each woman grapples with what it means to commit herself to a life with the other, and how their upbringings and families-of-origin impact their actions and expectations in the present. A life-threatening crisis for Nina’s father on the day of the Freedoms’ championship bout forces Nina to make the toughest play of her life. Knowing the possible consequences for herself, her father, and Rachel, she must choose the course she will take into the future. Like life itself, Tough Girl in the Jam is sometimes comic, sometimes serious, but always surprising.