Synopsis (credit: www.penguinrandomhouse.com)

To open this book is to enter the perilous, thrilling world of Billy Bathgate, the brazen boy who is accepted into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch Schultz gang.

Like an urban Tom Sawyer, Billy takes us along on his fateful adventures as he becomes good-luck charm, apprentice, and finally protegé to one of the great murdering gangsters of the Depression-era underworld in New York City.

Winner: PEN/Faulkner Foundation 1990.
Winner: National Book Critics Circle Awards: Fiction 1989.
Shortlist: Pulitzer Fiction 1990.
On the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List.

(Bought second-hand at Help the Rural Child Charity Bookshop, Main Road, Sea Point.)

The book was a pleasant surprise, with much more to it than one first suspects.

Finding himself, in a moment of reflection, in the classical 'dog that have caught the bus' situation, Billy admits to himself: "Mr Schultz did impulsive and unwise things, and I worried that I was one of them."

Donated to Help the Rural Child, a charity second-hand bookshop.

If you are new to BookCrossing and found this book, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community.

Whether you decide to join or not, please make a journal entry — now, and again when you decide to release the book to continue its journey.