David Koeppel

Story Statement: Keith Duckett, an aspiring teenage comic book artist must overcome the death of his mother, the desertion of his father and the racism that he faces, to leave a Queens neighborhood called Lefrak City during an unforgettable era of rising crime, white flight and civil rights conflict in an increasingly ungovernable city. 

Antagonist: The antagonist in my novel is Danny Rosenheck,  who early in the book may be perceived as the protagonist. As the novel continues,  it's  clear that Danny has developed a pathological jealously of Keith Duckett and an unlikely and unconventional friendship turns into something potentially deadly. Danny is a ten-year boy from a family that in the early 1960’s settles into a new housing complex called Lefrak City in the New York City Borough of Queens.  His life is disrupted by the turmoil of his parents’ marriage, the death of his best friend and a psychosomatic paralysis after years of bullying. Confined to a wheelchair,  Danny grows embittered as he watches most of his white friends flee the city to expensive homes on Long Island and Westchester.   He becomes a low-level drug dealer, adopting an alter ego calling himself Rocky.  The two boys bond over their difficult childhoods and the more reckless Rocky leads Keith into adventures that he might not have undertaken on his own Rocky/Danny becomes jealous of Keith’s talent as an artist and the younger boy’s ultimate escape from Lefrak to a better life, while Danny remains bitter and resentful. An act of revenge goes horribly wrong beyond even what Danny could have imagined. 

Breakout Titles 

1.    Left Back City 
2.    Leaving Left Back City 
3.    Left Back City Limits