Sewage | Brian Spencer Reyes | Literary Fiction

Description

Johnny Mazo has spent almost forty years in the Bureau of Sewage Management, convinced that patience and loyalty will eventually carry him to the top. When his mentor retires, he braces himself for the promotion he has been working toward his entire life. But the decision is made behind closed doors, and the position is handed to someone else. Johnny quickly learns the choice isn’t about qualifications. A small circle of senior officials has decided his fate, and they have no intention of letting an old hand like him move up.

Humiliated and sidelined, Johnny starts paying closer attention to the people above him. What he uncovers isn’t a grand plot but something far more insidious: favoritism tucked behind policy, misconduct brushed aside, and a system where the least deserving hold power simply because no one pushes back.

Meanwhile, his daughter Ronnie is drawn into a quiet student movement inside the university. Their ideals excite her, but their activities attract the kind of attention Johnny knows can spiral in dangerous directions, especially as the political atmosphere tightens.

With his career stalled, his household strained, and the Bureau proving more treacherous than he ever realized, Johnny begins testing the boundaries of what he can do to reclaim the position he believes he’s earned. Each step toward action forces him to confront a final question: how far is he willing to go — and what will it cost him when the line between right and necessary starts to blur?