Sleepers - Hardcover

Carcaterra, Lorenzo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345396065 ISBN 13: 9780345396068

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1995

Synopsis

This is the true story of four young boys. Four lifelong friends. Intelligent, fun-loving, wise beyond their years, they are inseparable. Their potential is unlimited, but they are content to live within the closed world of New York City's Hell's Kitchen. And to play as many pranks as they can on the denizens of the street. They never get caught. And they know they never will.
Until one disastrous summer afternoon.
On that day, what begins as a harmless scheme goes horribly wrong. And the four find themselves facing a year's imprisonment in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. The oldest of them is fifteen, the youngest twelve. What happens to them over the course of that year - brutal beatings, unimaginable humiliation - will change their lives forever.
Years later, one has become a lawyer. One a reporter. And two have grown up to be murderers, professional hitmen. For all of them, the pain and fear of Wilkinson still rages within. Only one thing can erase it.
Revenge.
To exact it, they will twist the legal system. Commandeer the courtroom for their agenda. Use the wiles they observed on the streets, the violence they learned at Wilkinson.
If they get caught this time, they only have one thing left to lose: their lives.

About this title

Review:

Undeniably powerful, an enormously affecting and intensely human story . . . Sleepers is a thriller, to be sure, but it is equally a wistful hymn to another age. The Washington Post Book World

A gut-wrenching piece of work . . . [Lorenzo] Carcaterra s graphic narrative grips like gunfire in a dark alley. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A terrifying account of brutality and retribution, searing in its emotional truth, peopled with murderers, sadists, and thugs, but biblical in its passion and scope. People

Sleepers is so many things: a Dickensian portrait of coming of age in Hell s Kitchen, a terrifying and heartbreaking account of the brutalization of youth, a shocking and disturbingly satisfying climax worthy of the finest suspense novel. A brilliant, troubling, important book. Jonathan Kellerman
Compelling. USA Today"

"Undeniably powerful, an enormously affecting and intensely human story . . . Sleepers is a thriller, to be sure, but it is equally a wistful hymn to another age."--The Washington Post Book World

"A gut-wrenching piece of work . . . [Lorenzo] Carcaterra's graphic narrative grips like gunfire in a dark alley."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A terrifying account of brutality and retribution, searing in its emotional truth, peopled with murderers, sadists, and thugs, but biblical in its passion and scope."--People

"Sleepers is so many things: a Dickensian portrait of coming of age in Hell's Kitchen, a terrifying and heartbreaking account of the brutalization of youth, a shocking--and disturbingly satisfying--climax worthy of the finest suspense novel. A brilliant, troubling, important book."--Jonathan Kellerman

"Compelling."--USA Today

From the Publisher:

When friendship runs deeper than blood

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0345396065
• ISBN 13: 9780345396068
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 404