The Prince of Steel Pier

Stacy Nockowitz

Sunday, November 5 • 1:00 pm

@stacy.nockowitz

@snockowitz

The Prince of Steel Pier

It’s 1975, and thir­teen-year-old Joey Good­man is spend­ing the sum­mer at his grand­par­ents’ declin­ing kosher hotel, the St. Bonaven­ture, in Atlantic City, New Jer­sey. Joey some­times feels for­got­ten as the third of four broth­ers in an oth­er­wise lov­ing and live­ly extend­ed fam­i­ly. When he’s not help­ing out at the hotel as an unpaid wait­er-in-train­ing, Joey explores the board­walk, a land­scape that is shift­ing now that gam­bling has been legal­ized. Casi­nos will soon pop­u­late the area, threat­en­ing old­er busi­ness­es like the St. Bonaven­ture and alter­ing Joey’s future.

When the teen encoun­ters a group of local mob­sters who seem par­tic­u­lar­ly impressed with his Skee-Ball abil­i­ties, his sum­mer plans are irrev­o­ca­bly changed. The boss, Artie Bish­op, takes a lik­ing to Joey and soon offers him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to chap­er­one his vis­it­ing teenage daugh­ter, Melanie. Although Joey feels con­flict­ed about these new con­nec­tions, which require him to lie to his fam­i­ly, he’s also enticed by the mon­e­tary agree­ments that afford him more than enough mon­ey to pur­chase the cam­era he’s been eye­ing.

Filled with mys­tery, may­hem, and mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships, this fast-paced his­tor­i­cal nov­el will cap­ture any reader’s attention.

About the Author:

Sta­cy Nock­owitz has been an edu­ca­tor and school librar­i­an for 30+ years. She holds Mas­ter’s Degrees in Edu­ca­tion and Library Sci­ence and is an MFA can­di­date in Writ­ing for Chil­dren. Sta­cy’s nov­el, The Prince of Steel Pier, won a 2022 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award and was named a 2022 Syd­ney Tay­lor Notable Book.

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