Work to Do

by Jules Wernersbach

When Eleanor founded Guadalupe Street Co-op in the early 1980s, she was in her mid-twenties and madly in love with her girlfriend, Meg. Together, they envisioned an idyllic grocery store owned by its workers and customers.

Forty years later, Guadalupe Street Co-op is an iconic Austin business with a loyal customer base, an antiquated business model, and a disgruntled staff. Roz, one of the store’s senior managers, is too caught up stalking her ex-wife online to notice that her girlfriend, Molly, is plotting with her coworkers to unionize. Roz also doesn’t see that Molly is not-so-secretly in a situationship with Randy, the dairy manager leading their collective.

Unfolding over the course of a single week during Texas hurricane season, Work to Do pings between the co-op’s first year and present day, as the unionization bid reaches fever pitch. The wind howls, the power goes out, and water creeps through the front door, as questions of who owns the grocery store and who has a right to its future are posed. And will the workers ever be paid enough to buy the organic groceries they shelve?

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Gay, Lesbian, Adult, Literary Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2026

About the author

Jules Wernersbach is a writer and bookseller in Brooklyn. Their debut novel, Work To Do, is coming from University of Iowa Press in 2026. Their short fiction has been published in Bennington Review, Heavy Feather Review, and other journals. They are the author of Vegan Survival Guide to Austin and The Swimming Holes of Texas. Jules is the co-owner of Hive Mind Books, an independent queer bookstore and coffee shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They have been a bookseller for a long time and also served as literary director of the Texas Book Festival.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a fan of the TV show SuperStore, I was interested to read a book set in a supermarket. Told from three perspectives, Work To Do gives you insights from all angles. I enjoyed the book, but with multiple names of characters thrown around frantically in the beginning I really struggled to get into it. I did, however, enjoy the ending and how things were wrapped up.

Thank you to NetGalley for access to this book.

[Raymond Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Work To Do is one of the finest novels I’ve read this decade. With intricate care and humor, Wernersbach excavates the distinctly 2020s relationship between the personal and the political. What happens when your survival strategy becomes toxic? What happens when the decisions you used to feel so good become loathsome in a society constantly on the brink of collapse? Can we actually know ourselves without the security of knowing what we do every day?

The story of the Guadalupe Street Co-op is told through the rotating perspectives of Eleanor (the seasoned owner of the health-minded community grocery store), Roz (the dutiful manager who loves her job and the purpose it gives her), and Randy (the disaffected yet whipsmart employee who imagines a better life for themself and their coworkers). Quickly, it becomes clear: the Co-op is important to everyone and yet contains so many ghosts of lives unfulfilled and futures far-off. We are on a collision course, and the only way out may be chaos and hurt. Truly an edge-of-your-seat read!

If you are constantly asking questions about whether community can be for you, read this book! If you have the love/hate relationship to queer, online, or leftie culture, read this book! If you dream of a better world but long for a time when it all felt simpler, read this book! If you have ever both worked a job and had a dream, read this book!

A TRIUMPH! a must-read!

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did read half this book the day I picked up my copy (from excellent local indie bookstore Hive Mind Books) and then that very night have a vivid nightmare of a cooperative meeting I have not attended in over a year.. So I adjusted my dosage and slowed down for the rest of the book, even though I really wanted to just slam the whole thing. I love deeply how distressingly realistic every point of view we see is - from the lowest-rung newbies to the top of the food chain, no one is a cackling wicked witch (despite some tornado-related consequences).

One of those good books I want to match with a very clever pithy review that gets you all to read it, but I'm still reeling from finishing so just believe me xxx

[Kim Narby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully done story featuring the owner of a co-op, the manager of the store, and one of the workers helping to organize a union effort had me deeply empathizing with every perspective. Anyone who has been in the organizing space would appreciate this book. It’s very gay, and includes a love triangle which comes to a head in a scene that literally made me close my eyes and shut the book for five minutes before I could proceed. Incredibly well done!

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

astounded by the drama and precision of this debut novel about labor disputes at a food coop. told in varied perspectives within a multigenerational cast of messy queers, the novel is teeming with both drama and deep characterization.

spending my life as a part of collectives, communal spaces, and nonprofits, i’ve long been astounded by how no matter how impressive/beloved the output, when you get close enough to how the organization gets run, how the work actually happens, it can feel shockingly precarious, astoundingly messy. i’ve come to see this devastating premise as a truth of working in collective: people will try their best, and people will fail. it will always feel messier than it looks. i’ve so rarely seen this reality reflected in a novel.

we spend so much of our waking lives working, or recovering from work, and yet the role of labor, of passion, of money, of generational trauma/privilege around money is horrendously underarticulated in US literature. this novel doesn’t shy away from diving straight into the role that “work to do” has on our psyches, relationships, self worth, families, homes. and how proximity to power can short-circuit empathy, sour relationships, and warp the stakes.

in its unflinching examination of labor and love, the novel articulates what is often the most heartbreaking of all when working in collective — that across hierarchy, folks often pour their whole selves into the work even as we fail, as we come up against the limits of our self awareness. our intentions, our commitment to growth, our deepest skills are no guarantee our projects will work, or that we’ll be able to make rent next month. and yet, we try.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

wasn't quite sure what to expect but i enjoyed this! work to do is undeniably political while also managing to avoid feeling overly didactic. it's an exploration of community, a workplace dramedy, and an ode to unions. the characters and perspectives (roz/manager, eleanor/owner, randy/worker) are all approached with empathy and nuance, but never at the expense of the larger picture. they are frustrating and complicated and while their values and experiences might differ, the three have a shared sense of intense loneliness and a sometimes-toxic love for the store and what it represents.

it took me several chapters to get a firm grasp of all three voices (roz and eleanor in particular mirror each other a lot, though maybe it's just that they're both pining for their ex) and all the other characters in their orbit. that didn't really detract from the experience for me - if anything it added to the realistic sense of chaos.

there's no easy solutions but sometimes you can make it work anyway. solidarity forever, baybee!!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practicaly perfect capture of the ups and downs of the modern labor movement. I was thrilled to find a book that relays the importance of unions for essential workers, while still showcasing the very human challenges associated with it. The characters in this novel are sympathetic - their economic hardships are easy to resonate with, as well as the purpose they find in their work community.

The novel is captivating and quick to read. I would highly recommend this book for anyone that enjoys work as a subject in their fiction. I hope we see more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and University Of Iowa Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Work to Do is out now!

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

something i really appreciated about this was that everyone depicted felt fully human. there were frustrating moments from all perspectives as well as sympathetic ones, which makes them all the more relatable! these glimmers of true humanity are what allow us to fully connect with the characters on page – or, as my fiancée’s students would say, they can serve as mirrors or windows, allowing us to see the world through someone else’s eyes or see our own world reflected back at us. i find that a lot of authors are often afraid to have their characters make poor choices or say the wrong thing sometimes, so it was refreshing to see such well-rounded characters in this book.

though i’ve never worked in a grocery store, some of the experiences reflected in the text resonated with me as someone who’s worked in customer service (panera specifically… i shudder recalling my days there). one difference i found interesting was watching them go through the same bullshit i did under a local business’s infrastructure as opposed to a large chain – i can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to deal with the day-to-day stupidity while being told that “we’re a family”. no! i’m your employee! i am here for a paycheck! i really sympathized with the staff while reading and got so frustrated on their behalf. it felt like i was in it alongside them! this was a quick but impactful read for anyone.

thank you to netgalley & the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the 1980s, Eleanor, along with her girlfriend Meg and a few friends, opened the Guadalupe Street Co-op. 40 years later it has been through some things but it's still there. Hurricane season has hit Texas and the store is battered throughout the week. Also, the staff are unionising which Eleanor doesn't take too kindly to.

I have never worked in a co-op which really does seem like its own ecosystem entirely but I have worked in retail and... yeah. lol this tracks. Can't imagine doing it through a hurricane! Eleanor is pretty much an entirely unsympathetic character. We also see the POVs of Roz, the store manager and Randy who is spearheading the unionisation effort.

You know what this read like an episode of Superstore but everybody is gay. And I loved that! I really appreciated what this book had to say about labour and unions and how crucial and central workers are to any retail business.

*read via Netgalley

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: When Eleanor founded Guadalupe Street Co-op in the early 1980s, she was in her mid-twenties and madly in love with her girlfriend, Meg. Together, they envisioned an idyllic grocery store owned by its workers and customers.

Forty years later, Guadalupe Street Co-op is an iconic Austin business with a loyal customer base, an antiquated business model, and a disgruntled staff. Roz, one of the store’s senior managers, is too caught up stalking her ex-wife online to notice that her girlfriend, Molly, is plotting with her coworkers to unionize. Roz also doesn’t see that Molly is not-so-secretly in a situationship with Randy, the dairy manager leading their collective.

Unfolding over the course of a single week during Texas hurricane season, Work to Do pings between the co-op’s first year and present day, as the unionization bid reaches fever pitch. The wind howls, the power goes out, and water creeps through the front door, as questions of who owns the grocery store and who has a right to its future are posed. And will the workers ever be paid enough to buy the organic groceries they shelve?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Hierarchies change people, at the top and at the bottom. They're good for, and at, that...yet we're told that being "a family" is not to be in a hierarchy by the kind of lefty person who sets up a co-op. (I was transported to Wheatsville as I read this.) If that's the case, what kind of family did you grow up in? Parents are our first bosses, our first gods. The idea of hierarchy is instilled in us by "bedtime" and "naptime" and, most hated of all, "bathtime." These activities are policed by Authority, ie parents. Thus from a young age we are in a hierarchy called "family"; soon enough, we begin to rebel. We desire to make our own choices, our own lessons learned our own way.

A unionization drive at a co-op is the business equivalent of adolescent rebellion. It felt to me as though all the characters were coping with adolescent emotional states throughout the story. The nature of any group is to experience friction in different strengths and around different topics of disagreement. This story pits idealism...no co-op anywhere ever is founded to make a profit...and pragmatism...how the hell can I pay rent and buy food this month? It's all tangled up with personality conflicts, old grudges, and the inevitable recrudescence of Being Right in any group attempting to make decisions.

Eleanor, the founder of the co-op, is parent to the idea and has powerful, forty-year-old ideas about the concept of the workers as family. Of course no one's paid enough, no one ever is because capitalism runs on scarcity. No matter that you're structuring a business on a cooperative model, you're still in a capitalist system, its pressures still apply. As the founder (owner is not applicable, they all own the co-op) Eleanor's investment is truly, intimately personal. It explains but does not excuse how thoroughly unpleasant Eleanor is during the whole book.

In point of fact, everyone from Randy the unionizer to Roz the manager, through to Eleanor the founder, is thoroughly unpleasant. Not one of them behaves empathetically, with kindness, or in any way not narcissistically. This is not the read for someone who needs to like the characters they're reading about. It's well-observed, with lots of clever lines; it's got the hurricane and its aftermath to give the reader a serious jolt of adrenaline; it's been part of everyone's experience to be a member of a hierarchy that's experiencing change. I was kept in the flow of the story by these structural realities while not invested in any one character's success. It was an interesting experience of being on the outside of a story, looking on as events unfolded, feeling myself caring in an abstract way about these folks.

Anyone who wonders if queer people running things, leftist running things, or multigenerational structure including all ages, are happier workplaces should read this story. Anyone who thinks life is better when x thing is the center of your work, your relationship, your mind should read this story. People are people. They do and say stupid, ill-advised things. Sometimes hurtful words are fixable, sometimes they aren't...don't think you're being Right will carry you through to inevitable victory...or even to happiness. It's all laid bare in Author Wernersbach's smoothly polished prose.

Read Work to Do when you're after a cautionary tale about hubris, a reminder that empathy is always a better choice, that cooperation trumps selfishness but does not necessarily mean getting what you want. It's a very grown-up person's book, and looks at queer people in all their messy, human glory...and snickers behind its hand.

[FemmeFataleReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deeper and at times very entertaining read about how much we really are able to change our lives within capitalism.
It explores people seeing the worst in each other and judging everything while also having weird priorities and morales.

It's well written in a sense that looks at the differences in perspective when seeing each character from someone else's pov. Though be prepared for it to be all negative. There were also great descriptions. I often had an immediate image in my head from just a few words.
It felt very realistic, I loved that we had the different perspectives and the book is great to discuss with people.

But the story had a few flaws for me. I can only say, if my inner monologue was anything like theirs and my only goal was to "work hard", I'd be miserable too. But also, sometimes there was missing something like a goal in the storyline to keep me hooked. These very flawed characters could only hold my attention and my pity for so long.
There were too many scenes that were first skipped and then told in retrospect for my liking, in favor of the story happening at the store.

I was impressed however with how the author achieved to make me feel for almost all the characters even though I mostly strongly disagreed with their values.

For those of you who don't like to spend your time in the past (like me), this book has only ever short flashbacks to when the co-op was founded. And really not that many. It didn't bother me at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Luca Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Work to Do feels so...accurate.

The most emotionally chaotic workplaces are the ones that believe they are morally good. The most shining example of this is CO-OPS! They start out so idyllic. And then? People are people-- they're all complicated. The characters in Work to Do are true to life because they all have a lot going on and not a single one of them is a cut and dry hero or villain.

Work to Do takes place during a hurricane week at an grocery co-op where a unionization effort is about to come to a head. The co-op was founded decades earlier as a queer utopian project (YAY!!), which is the kind of origin story that immediately lets you know everyone involved is going to be extremely intense (Boo?). Everyone is underpaid, the building is falling apart, and the workers are arguing. They are arguing earnestly, angrily, enthusiastically, self-righteously. This co-op feels exactly like it should.

There are a lot of characters in Work to Do, but the co-op itself reads as the main character to me. It is an ecosystem made of feelings, snacks, burnout, and people trying to believe the work they’re doing matters. If you’ve ever worked somewhere that used the word community a little too often, this book will feel very familiar. Four stars.

[Briana-Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possible 3.25/3.5 rounded down. Still settling on a number.

I liked it, I just think there was a LOT going on for <300 pages. I either wish ideas were more fleshed out to a longer story or some elements were eliminated. It felt like there were two fighting A plots instead of an A/B plot. I think it was supposed to be the lives of the workers as our A and the union as our B. But the union plot was so impactful to the story it drove tension between which was our "main focus".

I also feel like the ending was super unexpected and a little too quick for my personal taste.

That being said, I do recommend it! As a former grocery store employee of 3+ years, it felt super realistic. I also learned so much about unions/how they're formed/what it looks like. I like when books make me think and reflect, and I did a LOT of thinking.

Can't wait to see more from this author! Jules is LOVELY!
If you're ever in Bushwick, definitely pop into Hive Minds.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Work to Do describes a chaotic week at a local grocery co-op in Austin during hurricane season as the workers try to unionize, from the POV of the owner, a middle manager, and long-time employee. Each character is also dealing with things in their personal lives and has understandable reasons to be for or against unionization. I really like that each character was shown sympathetically and the complexities of the struggles of retail staff vs. running a small business were shown realistically. Really interesting topic and read.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the ARC! Also, shoutout to Hive Mind Books.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and the author is equally compassionate toward all their characters: the staff, labor organizers, and the managers and investors. The dialog really moved the story and character development along. A few things to quibble with…Some of the flashbacks were interspersed so intricately that I had to reread a few passages to figure out which timeline I was in. Speaking as someone with an M name in a family of women with M names, there were too many women with M names! Pick another letter so we have hope of quickly telling characters apart in this ensemble. Otherwise a great read and a love letter to Austin, TX.

[Abby Aguilera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of advance copy received from Netgalley!

Happy release month! I'm going to be so real, I knocked a point because I STRUGGLE with having so many names to keep up with, but I did enjoy this. I'm a big labor union girlie, which is why I requested this book in the first place, and I had a grand old time reading this.

I was given the opportunity to read this title by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was as fast as a rush at work when you’re in the thick of it and then finally stop and look up and two hours have passed. i read it in one gulp and thought about it for hours after. it spoke directly to me in a lot of ways, but should be read by everyone even if you didn’t work in customer service. if you did, though, this might be a special treat just for you.

[Kerri Schlottman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolute perfection! Set over a mere two weekends in an Austin co-op with a cast of unforgettable characters, Jules Wernersbach packs in a deeply engrossing and powerful story about community and chosen family, while surfacing big themes about worker's rights and organizing. Everyone should read this book!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, very believable story about a week in the life of a food co-op in Austin. I have a friend who worked in a organic market in a college town and from what I understood, her life was pretty much exactly like this novel. A few too many characters to keep straight but the vibe is right on.

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

RELATABLE! The use of multiple narrators from different generations is such a fun exploration of the existential challenges of queerness, capitalism, and retail. I'm dying to read the whole book that unfolds between the final chapter and the epilogue, can't wait to see what this author does next.

[Marc Veloz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entire book felt like a love letter to Austin!