The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages - Hardcover

Winslow, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1451665326 ISBN 13: 9781451665321

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2012

Synopsis

Published to coincide with the release of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone’s major film of Savages from Universal Pictures in July 2012—starring John Travolta, Blake Lively, Benecio Del Toro, Uma Thurman, Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, and Salma Hayek—this is the much-anticipated prequel to Don Winslow’s acclaimed New York Times bestseller.

In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Among the most celebrated thrillers in recent memory—and now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Oliver Stone—Savages was picked as a best book of the year by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, Janet Maslin in The New York Times, and Sarah Weinman in the Los Angeles Times.

Now, in this high-octane prequel, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon, and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, The Kings of Cool is a breathtakingly original saga of family in all its forms—fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. As the trio at the center of the book does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents’ history. A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will force Ben, Chon, and O to choose between their real families and their loyalty to one another.

Fast-paced, provocative, and wickedly funny, The Kings of Cool is a spellbinding love story for our times from a master novelist at the height of his powers. It is filled with Winslow’s trademark talents—complex characters, sharp dialogue, blistering social commentary—that have earned him an obsessive following. The result is a book that will echo in your mind and heart long after you’ve turned the last page.

About this title

Product Description

Hardcover. Pub Date: 2012 Pages: 336 Publisher: Simon & Schuster In Savages. Don Winslow the Introduced Ben and Chon twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love. O. Among the most celeated thrillers in recent memory-and now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone-Savages was picked as a best book of the year by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly. Janet Maslin in The New York Times. and Sarah Weinman in the Los Angeles Times. Now. in this high-octane prequel. Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben. Chon. and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past. The Kings of Cool is a eathtakingly original saga of family in all its forms-fathers and sons. mothers and daughters. friends and lovers. As the trio at the center of the book does batt...

Review

"[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read. He’s been honing it for years." (Evening Standard)

"Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect." (Alastair Mabbot Herald)

"Other beach-worthy fiction this season includes “The Kings of Cool,” the Don Winslow book for anyone overdue in discovering Don Winslow. This author’s “Savages” is the basis for a coming movie. “The Kings of Cool” is its prequel, studded with the same sharp, lean dialogue and quick-witted calculation. Mr. Winslow’s thoughts on America’s two wars in Iraq, as filtered through “The Godfather,” come out like this: “41 as Brando. 43 as Pacino.” It takes a mixed process of reading and decoding to appreciate fully Mr. Winslow’s hard-boiled, blazing talents." (Janet Maslin New York Times)

"It was not possible to finish Don Winslow’s lean, mean, piercingly funny 2010 Savages without wanting more...Now they’re back with a vengeance. Next month they will show up in Oliver Stone’s film version of Savages [and] Mr. Winslow has written a prequel called The Kings of Cool...Mr. Winslow’s keen attention to drug culture isn’t going to keep readers away from him. He’s too damn good to be polarizing. His characters are smart about their self-interest. His dialogue is tight, laconic and razor sharp; if Elmore Leonard or Lee Child discovered surfing, they might sound something like this." (New York Times)

"A brilliant, hypnotic novel...A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plot...Delivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel." (Doug Johnstone Independent on Sunday)

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1451665326
• ISBN 13: 9781451665321
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 322