Selfish Jean

Cate Sweeney

18 October 2011
9780230760769
200 pages

Synopsis

She wants an affair with Paul, but he is the social worker assessing them to be adoptive parents. And on top of that she thinks the social worker used to be her best friend’s old flame, but decides not to tell either of them.

Jeanette and Sam have been together a long time. Unable to have their own children, they have decided to adopt. However, while she is developing an obsession with Paul, the oh-so-serious social worker, Sam is involved in a thing that’s not yet a fling, but heading that way. Is her relationship with Sam in such trouble? Or do they just need some children in their life? Then everything will be all right, won’t it?

Juxtaposed with Jeanette’s first person narrative is the story of Levi, a young boy trapped in the care system, who is allowed no say about his life at all. We learn how he was taken away from his mother, along with his little sister, and moved from foster home to foster home, then back to his mother, a decision that ultimately leads to tragedy.