Published: February 8, 2026; Aithor: Julia Sonrisa
Address: 743 Church Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11218, United States
Phone: +1 347-240-3816
Web: https://www.loftypigeonbooks.com/“A thoughtful, wandering novel of self-examination, intrigue, art, and America’s pastime.” —Kirkus Reviews
Join us for the launch of Steven Fechter’s The Big Breeze, a noir thriller about obsession, guilt, loss and second chances.
Author Steven Fechter will be joined by writer Alvin Eng for a reading, conversation, and reception.
Preorder your copy of The Big Breeze here!
Can’t make it to the event? Preorder at the link above to receive a signed copy for store pickup or shipping. Indicate any personalization requests in the “instructions and comments” field during checkout.
Twenty-five years after the “Immaculate Game,” a perfect twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down, all strikeouts, legendary pitcher Joseph “Big Breeze” Bye hides out on a small farm in upstate New York. He paints the legends he followed, the heroes he once stood beside, and keeps to a quiet routine after a hit-and-run stole his career and left him in a wheelchair. Silence is the only game he plays now. One day, his routine is interrupted when the phone rings. A young reporter wants the real story of the night that made him a ghost in the world of professional baseball. Minutes later, he receives a second phone call, a voice from the past. The caller reveals to Joseph that the crash that killed his career wasn’t an accident, and the man who ordered the hit is still at large. As quickly as his career ended, Breeze is pulled off the sidelines and back into shadows he hoped to outrun. The trail winds through studio lofts and clubhouse tunnels, back rooms and midnight highways, into the dark underbelly of America’s pastime, where every secret comes high and inside. The Big Breeze is a lean noir thriller about obsession, guilt, loss, second chances—and a fallen ace stepping back on the mound for one more inning.
“Fechter paints his protagonist with deep sympathy and nuance, but also with unwavering honesty. Breeze’s narration follows his process of trying to make sense of past and present events, as well as his journey from self-pity to an understanding that his self-centeredness has limited his connection to the world and his relationships with those closest to him. At times, the multiple threads might threaten to overwhelm the reader, but Fechter always manages to tie everything back to Breeze’s quest for greater awareness. A thoughtful, wandering novel of self-examination, intrigue, art, and America’s pastime.” —Kirkus Reviews
Steven Fechter is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for the award-winning film The Woodsman (based on his play) starring Kevin Bacon, and earned recognition as a Humanitas Prize finalist in screenwriting. The Woodsman and his other plays have been staged throughout North America and Europe. In 2022, The Memory Exam, premiered at 59E59 Theatres in New York where it had a sold-out run. The New York Times called it a “dystopian thriller.” His short film, Miracle Baby, which he wrote and co-produced, has been an official selection in over 30 film festivals, winning awards for screenwriting, directing, and acting. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife.
Alvin Eng is a native NYC author/playwright, songwriter, educator and performer. His plays and performances have been seen Off-Broadway, in Paris, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. He is currently a New York Public Library Long Term Fellow—developing a companion book to his acclaimed memoir, OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond. His next book, URBAN ORACLE BONES, is a stage-to-page adaptation of his acoustic punk raconteur performance piece, HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN, and examines the impact of the Opium Wars on the Chinese diaspora of NYC and the “heroin chic” punk/counterculture. He is on the Artist Advisory Committee of the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Time: 6:30 pm EST
Free!
Detailed information and discussion of the event.