Small Change: Six Lives on the Edge of the American Dream

From the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize finalist, a brilliant, narrative-driven account of the small-dollar solutions that could transform the lives of millions of struggling Americans

“In showcasing people who are persistent, clever, flawed, loving, struggling and full of contradictions, [Kirshner] affirms why it’s worth solving the hardest problems in our most challenging cities in the first place.” —from The New York Times review of Jodie Kirshner’s Broke

Nearly eleven million young adults live in poverty in America. Small Change, the new book from award-winning author Jodie Adams Kirshner, exposes a hidden cause of their predicament: not a lack of ambition or effort, but the small-dollar barriers America’s tattered safety net was never built to catch. For millions of young people struggling to do the right thing, a single, unexpected expense—a textbook, a car repair, a medical bill—can knock a promising life off course.

Over four years and across four states, Kirshner follows six remarkable young people on the cusp of adulthood—an aspiring engineer in Memphis selling his plasma to buy schoolbooks, a Nashville honors student facing sudden homelessness, a coal miner’s son in West Virginia stranded without broadband, a Chicago teenager whose veterinary dreams collide with a family business starved for cash. Their stories weave hope and heartbreak into an unforgettable portrait of hard work, resiliency, and dreams that hinge on small but precious sums.

At a moment when economic mobility has stalled and the American Dream feels out of reach, Small Change points the way to innovative policy solutions—often dubbed “microfunding”—which could fill urgent needs without a radical overall of public policy. With a novelist’s eye and a reporter’s instincts, Kirshner reveals how little it takes to derail a future—and how little it would take to put millions of Americans’ lives back on track.