Peck & Peck
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Oct 13, 2026
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A BEST BOOK OF THE FALL FOR OPRAH DAILY AND TIME
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE, COUNTRY LIVING, AND BOOKPAGE
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of global sensation Lessons in Chemistry returns with an irresistible, delightful, and tender literary novel set in the publishing world of 1980s New York City about a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck.
Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest.
It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants—an “ear” for poetry—is worried about his future. While all of his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time.
But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers—twins and enemies—as well as being privy to the private affairs of their thirty-nine editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest.
And by burn, they mean incinerate. Because at Peck & Peck, “good” isn’t good enough, “interesting” doesn’t cut it, plagiarists aren’t tolerated, and parolees run the mailroom. Still want to submit your poem? Go with God.
Welcome to another dazzling and unforgettable novel from Bonnie Garmus. If you loved Lessons in Chemistry, you will love Peck & Peck.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bonnie Garmus follows Lessons in Chemistry with a delightfully eccentric ode to discovering your own voice set in 1980s New York. After Batter Gray (who’s named after a family dog) graduates college, he moves to the city and begins working three jobs to get by. His love of poetry eventually lands him at Peck & Peck, an illustrious New York poetry journal ruled by feuding twin brothers and staffed by 39 editors who take the written word very, very seriously. Starting at the copy machine, Batter soon finds himself navigating office rivalries, family secrets, questionable ethics, and an increasingly spectacular sense of chaos. Garmus fills his world with wonderfully specific obsessions, from the emotional significance of typefaces to the ability of a great poem to change how we understand an ordinary day. But beneath the screwball workplace comedy is a warmhearted coming-of-age story about a young man learning that finding his own way sometimes means getting things incredibly wrong. Peck & Peck is a tender, quirky, laugh-out-loud story about the messy business of figuring out what matters most to you.
