Bruce Clements on WHAT ERIKA WANTS

Maybe all well-written novels help us define who we are and what we face in the world. I hope WHAT ERIKA WANTS does that. It began with a “debriefing” talk with one of our clients, a brave, smart, resilient girl who, at first, had seen her law center lawyer as just another adult messing around with her life. In the novel, Erika doesn’t think of herself as a victim, but the judge in her parents’ custody battle sees that she could become one, and at the end Erika knows both her strengths and her limits better. Jean, her court appointed attorney, can serve her well only if she wins her trust, and the story centers around that work. Jean is not out to change her. On the contrary, she sees her job as helping Erika build her strength, thereby protecting her from the more dangerous of her two parents. She succeeds.