Set on the eve of the 2009 G20 Summit protests, City of Clans follows Jeremy Starcevic, a community college student struggling with his identity and sexuality. By day, Jeremy works for a party goods distributor in the heart of the city and attends classes. By night, he drinks to excess and self-sabotages at the urging of friends. As the son of a professional baseball player, Jeremy grew up playing sports and molding himself into a certain type of guy鈥攁 type embodied in Jeremy鈥檚 best friend and roommate, the hypermasculine Scott Melloy. But when Scott commits an unthinkable act, Jeremy is forced to acknowledge that the friend he idolized is a sexual predator, and his carefully constructed sense of self crumbles.
Jeremy begins a journey of healing and self-reflection that carries him back to his family and his one true friend, Katrina Kovacs, a photography major who opens his eyes to societal issues he鈥檚 always ignored. A story of redemption, City of Clans captures the resiliency of the human spirit and explores hidden truths of masculinity, sexuality, and self.
鈥淕eoff Peck's City of Clans is a sharp, emotionally raw novel about the forces that shape us鈥攆riendship, family, expectation, masculinity鈥攁nd the creeping fear that we鈥檝e already made the wrong choices. Jeremy is a flawed, yearning, and deeply familiar character as he stumbles through the haze of early adulthood. Peck renders his world with a cutting, observant gaze, capturing both the rush of reckless nights and the quiet dread of mornings after. A compelling, unforgettable portrait of a young man trapped between the person he was and the future that feels increasingly out of reach.鈥 鈥擜lexandra Chang, author, Tomb Sweeping
鈥淏rutal but spiked with hope, City of Clans is the antidote to toxic masculinity we鈥檝e been waiting for. It鈥檚 a lively, if chilling novel that takes shades from The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and A Little Life and applies them to the Pennsylvania steel mills, warehouses, and college bars of the early Obama era. Peck鈥檚 characters鈥攖he eager-to-evolve Big Jerm, the insecure alpha male Scotty Ballgame, and the resilient Kat鈥攁re fully alive in these pages that take a sledgehammer to the violent sexual politics of a fortunately bygone era. Most surprising is Peck鈥檚 intent. Peck returns us to this dark historical moment not merely to revel in the pain but to ask the all-too-essential question: How do we move on from trauma and heal?鈥濃擲alvatore Pane, author, The Neorealist in Winter
鈥淚鈥檝e never read a novel that so ruthlessly examines traditional American masculinity鈥攁nd from the perspective of a character both trapped in and perpetuating its continued harm. With boldness and nuance, Peck builds a tense, urgent story that peers beneath the surface of his characters鈥 worst impulses鈥攖hen goes deeper still, to the antiquated social structures they work to maintain and the tender vulnerability they鈥檒l do anything to avoid. I experienced every feeling possible while tearing through this brilliant debut: anger, bewilderment, sadness, heartbreak鈥攁nd ultimately, hope.鈥濃擜shleigh Bell Pedersen, author, The Crocodile Bride
