coming June 2025 from Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins
and with Heloola in Italy and Bastei Lübbe in Germany
From the publisher:
When a tight-knit family moves from Brooklyn to Maine, their lives are upended by an event that will alter their new community forever in this bighearted, sparkling debut for fans of Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Pineapple Street, and Schitt’s Creek
Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother,Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family. Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, HAZEL SAYS NO is a debut novel not to be missed.
Early Praise
“Jessica Berger Gross has written an exuberant and big-hearted novel that encompasses an entire transplanted Brooklyn-to-Maine family. This book manages the neat trick of being both timely and timeless, and is a powerful and witty exploration of what it’s like to find and claim your spot in a confusing world.”
—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company
“Hazel Says No pulled me in from the first witty page, and I invented an imaginary book group to read along with me and discuss all the issues raised and choices made by the Blum family and other characters in a well-drawn small town in Maine. Will Hazel’s actions pull the family together or break them apart? This twisty story kept me guessing until the end. I am astonished that this is Jessica Berger Gross’s first novel—it’s great,skillful, and funny. Fans of Catherine Newman will love it!”
—Alice Elliott Dark, national bestselling author of Fellowship Point
“How could I not fall in love with Jessica Berger Gross’ Hazel Says No when it’s set in both Brooklyn and Maine, two places I love—and it features a feisty young woman who dreams of being = a writer? Filled with spiky humor (I was grinning every time I turned a page) and characters so real, you expect them to show up for lunch, Gross’ book is the irresistible story of a big city Brooklyn family relocating to a small rural town in Maine. But when high school daughter Hazel is propositioned by her principal, her family and her community erupt. This is an absolutely wonderful novel about figuring out who and what we want to be, and who we truly are.”
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Days of Wonder
About Jessica
Jessica is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home (Scribner/2017), based on her bestselling Kindle Single of the same name. She’s the editor of the anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope (Plume/2006). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine,The Cut, Longreadsand many other publications.
After growing up on Long Island and graduating from Vassar College, Jessica lived in NYC’s East Village, Brooklyn, Madison (where she earned an MA in public policy at the University of Wisconsin), Brooklyn again, upstate New York, Los Angeles, Cambridge, Brooklyn (again again), Vancouver, and Brooklyn (again again again), before moving to Maine with her husband, a professor at Colby College, and their son. She has taught creative writing at the Harvard Extension School, at the University of British Columbia, as a mentor with Grub Street’s Mentor Incubator, and with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Jessica (occasionally) works one-on-one with writers and writing students on developmental edits, manuscript consults, and coaching.
Her literary agent is Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.
For television/film, she’s represented by Jason Richman and Orly Greenberg at United Talent Agency.
