Billy Bathgate (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Doctorow, E. L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241256429 ISBN 13: 9780241256428

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2016

Synopsis

'I was living in even greater circles of gangsterdom than I had dreamed, latitudes and longitudes of gangsterdom'

It's 1930's New York and fifteen-year-old streetkid Billy, who can juggle, somersault and run like the wind, has been taken under the wing of notorious gangster Dutch Schultz. As Billy learns the ways of the mob, he becomes like a son to Schultz - his 'good-luck kid' - and is initiated into a world of glamour, death and danger that will consume him, in this vivid, soaring epic of crime and betrayal.

About this title

Review:

A wonderful addition to the ranks of American boy heroes . . . Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer with more poetry, Holden Caulfield with more zest and spirit . . . The kind of book you find yourself finishing at three in the morning after promising at midnight that you ll stop at the next page. "New York Times Book Review
"
A modern American masterpiece . . . Doctorow takes up the legacies of Fitzgerald and Cheever and adds to them a savage and erotic splendor of his own. John le Carre
Indelible in its fierce energy, its relentless irony, its rawness. "Philadelphia Inquirer
"
Riveting . . . mesmerizing . . . unforgettable. "Time
"
Enthralling. "Los Angeles Times"
"

"A wonderful addition to the ranks of American boy heroes . . . Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer with more poetry, Holden Caulfield with more zest and spirit . . . The kind of book you find yourself finishing at three in the morning after promising at midnight that you'll stop at the next page."--New York Times Book Review

"A modern American masterpiece . . . Doctorow takes up the legacies of Fitzgerald and Cheever and adds to them a savage and erotic splendor of his own."--John le Carre
"Indelible in its fierce energy, its relentless irony, its rawness."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Riveting . . . mesmerizing . . . unforgettable."--Time

"Enthralling."--Los Angeles Times

About the Author:

E. L. Doctorow (1931-2015) was one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed writers. Winner of the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the National Humanities Medal, he is the author of twelve novels that explored the drama of American life from the late-19th century to the 21st.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0241256429
• ISBN 13: 9780241256428
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320