Owning Up: From the writer/producer on The Wire, The Deuce and We Own This City (Paperback) - George Pelecanos

Four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity, from esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos

'Perhaps the greatest living American crime writer' STEPHEN KING

'Pelecanos... has continued to produce first rate crime novels' BRUCE DESILVA

****

After the Carusos family home is destroyed by police with a no-knock warrant, the family struggle to return to normal.

Two former inmates reunite on a TV set. They're both back on the straight and narrow ... until one sees the potential for an easy grift.

A teenage boy must step into the man he'd like to be as a hostage crisis grips his hometown.

A woman adrift meets a man tied to her grandmother's past, and awakens to the bloody history of the place she grew up.

Pelecanos' portraits are characterized by shades of grey, resisting the mold of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators, good and evil. At once streetwise and full of heart, Owning Up grapples with random chance, the bind of consequence, and the forked paths a life can take.

****

Praise for George Pelecanos:

'Triple-distilled excellence. Pelecanos is the undisputed poet laureate of America's most secret city. Not just recommended: this is essential reading.' LEE CHILD

'Every time I read one of George Pelecanos's novels I'm left a little awed and a little envious. The guy's a national treasure.' DENNIS LEHANE

'Pelecanos is a powerful writer - he deserves to be listed among the best.' OBSERVER

'Gold-standard character-driven crime writing that few will ever match.' FT

'George Pelecanos writes hard-boiled fiction with heart.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

About the Author

George Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C. in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, and woman's shoe salesman before publishing his first novel in 1992.

Pelecanos is the author of twenty books set in and around Washington, D.C. He is an award-winning essayist who has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker and numerous other publications. Esquire magazine called him "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wrote that Pelecanos is "perhaps the greatest living American crime writer."

Pelecanos was a producer, writer, and story editor for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series, The Wire, winner of the Peabody Award, the AFI Award, and the Edgar. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on that show. He was a writer and co-producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific, produced by Steven Spielberg, and most recently worked as a writer and Executive Producer on the HBO series Treme.

Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.