Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

A compelling and complusively readable riff on the classic detective novel from America's most inventive novelist.

Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel's colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim's widow skips town. Lionel's world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original, captivating homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.

A New York Times Notable Book.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 10/24/2000
ISBN: 9780375724831
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.80d

Review Citations: Entertainment Weekly 11/03/2000 pg. 75
New York Times 10/29/2000 pg. 36
New York Times 12/03/2000 pg. 109
Booklist 06/01/2001 pg. 1838
Booklist 05/01/2002 pg. 1453

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 35837 / Motherless Brooklyn
Reading Level: 6.1 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 15