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Silicon Valley 'nepo baby' publishes scathing first novel about growing up rich

In “Smokebirds,” Daniel Breyer sets out to skewer nepo babies. The irony is not lost on him.

This is slightly difficult to believe, given that the younger Breyer’s debut novel, “Smokebirds,” to be released Tuesday by Rare Bird Lit, is a searing indictment of a fabulously wealthy, high-society San Francisco family — exactly the kind of tribe he grew up in. As a result, the younger Breyer grew up in a six-bedroom, five-bath, $15 million estate on five acres in scenic Woodside, attended a private high school in Menlo Park, along with “a lot of other kids of VCs and entrepreneurs and stuff,” and studied history at Brown University. The characters abuse prescription pills, plot illicit affairs, cheat each other out of money, and, in one pivotal scene, attempt to cover up a massive forest fire started by their company.

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