Literary Author

He was nineteen, running from a shotgun wedding, when the Navy gave him an exit. What followed was four decades he never could have predicted.

Grass Through Pavement traces one man’s long, unruly journey — from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin to the free-love streets of San Francisco, through marriages and affairs, Transcendental Meditation and psychedelics, fatherhood and hard-won wisdom, and finally a reckoning in the streets of Hanoi that quietly changes everything. Vietnam is where Lucien’s story begins. What it becomes is something far larger.

With a narrative voice reminiscent of Eve Babitz, Peter Trivelas blends introspection with vivid storytelling — candid, funny, and surprisingly tender. A novel about desire, consequence, and the stubborn human capacity to keep growing, at any age.

For readers of Tim O’Brien, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and anyone who believes that becoming yourself is a lifelong project.

• This book grew out of questions that stayed with me long after the war ended, and it took many years to find a form they could live in.

• Several chapters have been published as stand-alone short stories in various literary journals. They're available to read via the links below.