Don'T Mess With Tanya

As Boston's demographics shift, a subtle cultural revolution swirls ahead, opening doors of perception. Jazmin, a Latina teen, explores immortality on a basketball court in Jamaica Plain. Tanya, a young black woman from Dorchester, confronts a store-owner over racial profiling. Matt, an Irish thug from Charlestown, learns "what women want" at a Caribbean hair salon in Mattapan. Rosa, a beautiful Brazilian house cleaner in Brighton, tests out a theory with her dueling boyfriends. These characters and others crash, clash, and commune in loosely-linked provocative stories that explore themes of culture, race, immigration, violence, love and spirituality. The engaging urban tales propel the reader into everyday dramas that are transforming Beantown's social fabric.