Sutton

J.R. Moehringer is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of the New York Times bestseller The Tender Bar - the memoir that captured the hearts of booksellers, the media, and readers alike. Now, here is his long-anticipated debut novel, bringing to life, in vivid and poignant detail, the "Babe Ruth" of bank robbers, Willie Sutton. It is sure to be one of the most buzzed about books of the fall.

Willie Sutton was driven by two things - a lost love and a fierce vendetta against banks. Among the most notorious criminals in American history, he spent half his life in prison, the other half on the run. Then came Christmas Eve, 1969. Sutton's surprise parole from Attica sparked a media frenzy. Every journalist and talk show host wanted an interview. Sutton, however, granted only one. Sixty-eight years old and in failing health, he spent all that Christmas with a newspaper reporter and photgrapher, driving around New York City, visiting the scenes of his many heists, betrayals, hertbreaks and escapes. The result was a strangely cursory front-page article, filled with half truths and platitudes. Notably missing was any mention of Sutton's first accomplice, the girl who lead him into a life of crime, then broke his heart.

Sutton, a historical novel based on extensive research, is a comic, moving, gritty imagining of that mysterious Christmas, and the remarkable life that preceded it, a life defined by thrills, follies, unseen bravery and treachery, and the long shadow of a doomed, unforgettable romance.