Savage City by Donald Levin (signed)
Detroit, 1932. The fates of four people converge during a violent week in the hardest-hit city of the Great Depression. This engrossing novel blends history and fiction against the backdrop of the bloody Ford Hunger March.
“His insightful ruminations on the nature of power, bloodshed, class and racial disparity, fascism, the labor problems of the era, and universal truth gives depth as well as substance to the affecting narrative. Packing an emotional punch, this meditation on the nature of humanity, violence, and self-discovery makes for an intense read.” —Prairies Book Review
“Detective Clarence Brown is one of a handful of Black officers in the Detroit Police Department, navigating a thicket of lies and racism to find the killer of a young Black man. Ben Rubin wants to move from petty crime into the ranks of Detroit’s notorious Purple Gang. Elizabeth Waters is a fiercely independent Communist sympathizer who has turned her back on her privileged Grosse Pointe upbringing to join the workers’ fight for a piece of the American dream. Roscoe Grissom is an unemployed auto worker enlisted by the fearsome Black Legion to sow terror as a night-riding emissary of hate.
Against the backdrop of the bloody Ford Hunger March, events hurl these four into the center of a political storm that will change them forever. Savage City spellbindingly captures a key inflection point in the creation of modern American life.” –Publisher’s blurb at Donaldlevin.com
“I love researching, and the book gave me the opportunity to indulge that love,” he said. “I also discovered I enjoy working on historical fiction for a number of reasons, not least of which is that having to imaginatively recreate a period from 90 years ago freed me of the obligation to know much about the specifics of the current Detroit scene… I’ve started thinking about another historical novel set in the late 1950s. That might be what’s next once I catch my breath from ‘Savage City.’” –interview with Donald Levin from The Oakland Press
About the Author: Donald Levin is a retired dean of the faculty and Professor of English at the former Marygrove College in Detroit. He has written seven Martin Preuss mysteries: In the House of Night (2020), Cold Dark Lies (2019), An Uncertain Accomplice (2018), The Forgotten Child (2017), Guilt in Hiding (2016), The Baker’s Men (2014), and Crimes of Love (2011). Levin is a resident of Ferndale, Michigan.
Signed Copies are available Now!
$ 19.95
