What do you think?
Rate this book
Pierce
The year is 2001. 20-year-old James Collier is a carpenter in southwestern Montana struggling against unruly lumber and his own heart, as his best friend marries and he meets a girl he hardly deserves.
The year is 2004. James Collier leads a fireteam in Fallujah, Iraq, where he learns innocence is a dearer thing, and harder to protect, than flesh and blood.
The year is our own. James Collier’s son, Pierce, flees from Spokane to the land of his father, seeking reconciliation and fruitful work. But the circumstances of his departure hazard the survival of his entire family . . .
Experience the three-part, generational epic from the author of 2023’s cult-classic FEDBOOK. This is Pierce, John Jay Stancliff's second novel, a knight's tale in the modern age.
The year is 2004. James Collier leads a fireteam in Fallujah, Iraq, where he learns innocence is a dearer thing, and harder to protect, than flesh and blood.
The year is our own. James Collier’s son, Pierce, flees from Spokane to the land of his father, seeking reconciliation and fruitful work. But the circumstances of his departure hazard the survival of his entire family . . .
Experience the three-part, generational epic from the author of 2023’s cult-classic FEDBOOK. This is Pierce, John Jay Stancliff's second novel, a knight's tale in the modern age.
- GenresFiction
330 pages, Paperback
Published August 11, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 8, 2026
Jay Stancliff is a man to look to.
September 22, 2026
Fantastic generational storytelling.
September 4, 2026
Stancliff is one of the only people writing serious novels of a respectable length today. This and Fedbook are some of the most compelling contemporary novels I've come across. I should also mention that his publisher, Farthest Heaven, is putting out some of the highest quality fiction and poetry of any publishing house.
Pierce is about a family of construction workers from Montana, one of whom goes to Iraq to fight in the Global War on Terror. The book addresses a series of overlapping themes, including duty to one’s family, the question of just violence, manual labor, friendship, aging, and death.
Stancliff writes in a clean, workmanlike prose that nonetheless generates profound emotional effect. There is genuine feeling in this book, not the dull irony that characterizes most American literature from the past several decades or the sentimentality that we often see online. I highly recommend not only this, but also Fedbook and Stancliff's short fiction which can be found on his blog, NINEVEH 20XX.
Pierce is about a family of construction workers from Montana, one of whom goes to Iraq to fight in the Global War on Terror. The book addresses a series of overlapping themes, including duty to one’s family, the question of just violence, manual labor, friendship, aging, and death.
Stancliff writes in a clean, workmanlike prose that nonetheless generates profound emotional effect. There is genuine feeling in this book, not the dull irony that characterizes most American literature from the past several decades or the sentimentality that we often see online. I highly recommend not only this, but also Fedbook and Stancliff's short fiction which can be found on his blog, NINEVEH 20XX.
September 2, 2026
Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews