Sleepers
Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra is a compelling narrative published by Ballantine Books in 1996. This reprint edition spans 370 pages and is presented in English. The book recounts the extraordinary true story of four young boys from New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen who, after a fateful summer afternoon, find themselves imprisoned in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. Their experiences there, marked by brutal treatment and humiliation, profoundly alter their lives and set them on divergent paths.
As the years pass, the boys grow into men, with two becoming murderers and professional hit men, while one becomes a lawyer and another a reporter. The lingering trauma from their time at Wilkinson drives them toward a quest for revenge, compelling them to manipulate the legal system and confront their past. Sleepers explores themes of friendship, trauma, and retribution, delving into the complexities of their lives shaped by crime and survival.
Official synopsis Publisher
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The extraordinary true story of four men who take the law into their own hands.
This is the story of four young boys. Four lifelong friends. Intelligent, fun-loving, wise beyond their years, they are inseparable. Their potential is unlimited, but they are content to live within the closed world of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. And to play as many pranks as they can on the denizens of the street. They never get caught. And they know they never will.
Until one disastrous summer afternoon.
On that day, what begins as a harmless scheme goes horrible wrong. And the four find themselves facing a year’s imprisonment in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. The oldest of them is fifteen, the youngest twelve. What happens to them over the course of that year–brutal beatings, unimaginable humiliation–will change their lives forever.
Years later, one has become a lawyer. One a reporter. And two have grown up to be murderers, professional hit men. For all of them, the pain and fear of Wilkinson still rages within. Only one thing can erase it.
Revenge.
To exact it, they will twist the legal system. Commandeer the courtroom for their agenda. Use the wiles they observed on the streets, the violence they learned at Wilkinson.
If they get caught this time, they only have one thing left to lose: their lives.
Praise for Sleepers
“Undeniably powerful, an enormously affecting and intensely human story . . . Sleepers is a thriller, to be sure, but it is equally a wistful hymn to another age.”—The Washington Post Book World
“A powerful book, hard to forget . . . Carcaterra is an excellent writer, changing pace here and there but never letting the reader go. . . . Sensitive, humorous, and harrowing, featuring dialogue with perfect pitch.”–The Denver Post
“A gut-wrenching piece of work . . . [Lorenzo] Carcaterra’s graphic narrative grips like gunfire in a dark alley.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A terrifying account of brutality and retribution, searing in its emotional truth, peopled with murderers, sadists, and thugs, but biblical in its passion and scope.”—People
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