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"Effortlessly masterful." — Bookgasm "A fascinating little work of art. Will linger with you long after you put the book down. Definitely worth your time." — Just Well Mixed Amid the tenements and riverfronts of the Lower East Side, twin brothers Max and Morris rule the seedy streets as chieftains of a crew of thieves and hoodlums. Tensions rise when a rival gang encroaches upon their Sheriff Street territory, leading to a wave of violence that threatens to develop into an all-out war. The setting becomes even more explosive when a femme fatale enters the scene and tests the brothers' loyalty to each other. With its moody, atmospheric images of New York City's underworld during the 1930s, this graphic novel conjures up the timeless allure of film noir. The haunting illustrations are the work of French artist Jacques de Loustal, who is also a noted painter and graphic artist. This edition includes a series of the artist's preliminary sketches. Author Jerome Charyn, hailed by New York Newsday as"a contemporary American Balzac," provides a new introduction and translation for the tale, which was originally published in French. Suggested for mature readers.
Authors
Jerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers." Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris. In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong." Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque." Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
