Exit Velocity
A Novel
by Barbara Gregorich
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Pub Date Jun 04 2024 | Archive Date May 28 2024
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Description
Rowan Pickett’s world has gone to hell, her sister murdered in a high school shooting, her mother leaving, and Rowan sitting home and mourning. But then reality kicks in: Rowan realizes that she wants to survive, and in order to survive she needs a job. This leads her to Titus Longshaw, Black leader of the socialist organization Working Class Control. Titus points Rowan to a job at Package Nova, a global shipping firm on Chicago’s south side.
From there, things move at the pace of a million packages whizzing by on conveyer belts. The foreman has it in for Rowan because she speaks out against sexism. Worse yet, Zeb Snoddy, proclaimed white-supremacist, also has it in for Rowan because of her politics. One dark night, Snoddy confronts Rowan and her best friend, Keisha Longshaw.
Jake Terranova, a podcaster from Boston, starts out thinking that Rowan has a parrot she has trained to assault (and maybe assassinate?) Zeb Snoddy. And then he suspects the unthinkable— that the parrot Deeply is from another planet.
The paths of Rowan, Keisha, Titus, Jake, and Deeply intersect where and when it matters most: as Rowan and Working Class Control lead demonstrations in front of the Package Nova headquarters.
Like the striking workers of the UAW and UPS, the union organizers at Amazon and Starbucks, Exit Velocity inspires the working class to embrace the possibility of social change.
A Note From the Publisher
Exit Velocity will be available in ebook format as well as paperback.
Advance Praise
Gregorich injects just enough SF whimsy into a very relevant modern-day plot to make the story truly memorable. . . . Rowan’s newfound sense of justice — and her harsh discovery of the lengths that are sometimes necessary to achieve it — will likely stir readers as they reach the inventive novel’s conclusion.
A creative exploration of human rights, grief, and self-discovery in the face of opposition. — Kirkus Reviews
Exit Velocity is a tale for these times - part fantasy, part political-social analysis of why we’re in a boat about to go over the falls. It’s also a love story. Love between good friends, between parent and child, between lovers, and best of all, love of a great parrot who wants to help us save ourselves. If you love Octavia Butler, you’ll enjoy Exit Velocity. — Sara Paretksy, author of the V.I. Warshawski novels, recipient of the Golden Dagger, Anthony, and Cartier Diamond Dagger Awards
Exit Velocity is a multifaceted and astounding gem of a political novel, gripping and richly imagined. From the first page, Barbara Gregorich takes the reader on a captivating ride into the world of present-day Chicago left-wing activism and working-class life. With an unsettling brood of characters, the action rarely lets up as the personal and social are seamlessly tied. — Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, author of Writing from the Left: New Essays on Radical Culture and Politics
