Early ReviewersMichael Gross

Michael Gross's rollicking debut novel Spillage is a fantastical love story featuring rookie pitching phenom and would-be NY-savior Nick "the Swan" Spillage.

The novel is a wild play on the Faustian musical Damn Yankees, a rock and roll romance and a wickedly comic throwback to the chaos of New York City’s darkest days.

Set in 1976, the novel takes place when the Big Apple is in sorry shape. Besieged on all sides, the city has become a graffiti-coated, garbage-filled, crime-ridden cauldron teetering on the edge of total collapse. Adding to New York’s towering woes, a revolutionary group called the Satanic Vanguard has kidnapped the mayor, set fire to Coney Island, and threatened further mayhem. All that Gotham has to hope for are its resurgent Yankees, who’ve come back from the dead to reach the World Series by riding the arm of their rookie pitching phenom Nick Spillage.

But Satan and his Vanguard plan to snuff that hope out too. They’ve targeted a young, rock-and-roll loving East Village couple to help with their diabolic scheme. That leads to the Faustian bargain at the center of the story.