Watching Traffic [Hardcover]

Emily has finally finished high school in the small town where she has lived her whole life. At last, she thinks, her adult life can begin.

But what if you have no idea what you want your new life to look like? What then?

While Lincoln gets ready to go backpacking in Australia, Melissa packs for university on the east coast, and a new guy named Tyler provides welcome distraction, Emily wonders whether she will end up working forever at Pamela’s Country Catering, cutting the crusts off party sandwiches and stuffing mushrooms. Is this her future? Being known forever as the local girl whose mother abandoned her in the worst way possible all those years ago? Visiting her spacey grandmother, watching nature shows on TV with her dad and hanging out with Robert the grocery clerk? Listening to the distant hum of the highway leading out of the town everyone can’t wait to leave?

With poetic prose and a keen eye for the quirks and ironies of small-town life, Jane Ozkowski captures the bittersweet uncertainty of that weird, unreal summer after high school — a time that is full of possibility and completely terrifying at the same time.

Ozkowski's thoughtful novel covers substantial emotional ground with authenticity. —Publishers Weekly

Ozkowski's smart, insightful debut perfectly captures the frustratingly disjointed time between the end of high school and the beginning of everything else. —The Horn Book

A short, slice-of-life-style story that fans of literary fiction will find satisfying. —Kirkus Reviews

Ozkowski adeptly captures the absurdity and magic of the last summer before college. —School Library Journal

Jane Ozkowskihas a BA in English and Creative Writing from York University. She works in the office at a motorcycle driving school, and although she does not have a motorcycle, she does have her license in case shlCÏ