Coming in 2022

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Xennial is a short fiction collection set in post-industrial Northeastern Ohio at the turn of the 21st century. The eleven interconnected stories explore coming of age from the perspective of a working class kid who has gone out on his own for the first time into a world that is not at all what it seemed like on television, with the 90s’ promises of the success that a college degree could bring still ringing in his ears. Highlights of the collection include “Dropout,” which finds the narrator returning home for the summer from his second year of college, prematurely world-weary, ready for a change. “Truck Shop” takes the boy back to when he was 12-years-old, living at his parent’s middle-of-nowhere semi repair shop, fighting boredom and trying to stay out of trouble. “Greasy” finds him working at McDonald’s, a rock star-in-his-head dreaming of one day escaping his redneck town, biding his time by pursuing what he loves the most—sex, drugs, & rock n’ roll, of course. Xennial, Gott’s seventh book, is an honest look at the struggles of someone from the “new lost generation” trying to navigate life in the Rust Belt and make sense of the rapidly changing world around him.