Owning Up - by George P Pelecanos (Hardcover)

About the Book

"When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, 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, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds the place she grew up."--

Book Synopsis

Four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity; "Every time I read one of George Pelecanos's novels, I'm left a little awed."(Dennis Lehane)

When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, 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, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds 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.

Review Quotes

"Pelecanos. . . has continued to produce first-rate crime novels. . . Now, in "Owning Up," he presents four novellas that trace the consequences of a random event or single bad choice in the life stories of everyday people. . . Although each tale is short, averaging 56 pages, they are sweeping, tracing the consequences of these events over a lifetime... The book is distinguished by well-drawn characters, elegant prose and thoughtful insights about human nature." --Bruce Desilva, AP

"Every time I read one of George Pelecanos's novels, I'm left a little awed...The guy's a national treasure."--Dennis Lehane

"Here we see what makes Pelecanos' best writing so resonant: the sense of longing, of miscommunication, the way love does not enlarge us but rather makes us small."--David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

"If I were in jail, George Pelecanos would be on my reading list, right up there with James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard. . . . Pelecanos's characters [are] so human and so doomed. This is an author who writes with the steady hand of a man who knows he's driving a cool set of wheels and respects his own mechanical skills."--Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Like his hero Elmore Leonard, Pelecanos finds the humanity in the lowest of lowlifes. . . . Pelecanos' peppery dialogue energizes every page."--Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

"The writing is taut, the violence is graphic and the characters are so well-drawn that they step off the page and into your life. . . As good as it gets."--Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press

"Using his customary knowing dialogue and stripped-down, soulful prose, Pelecanos skillfully, sensitively works the urban frontier where the problems and stresses of everyday life cross the line into the sort of criminal behavior that could tempt anyone-anyone at all."--Kirkus Reviews

Praise for the novels of George Pelecanos----

About the Author

George Pelecanos is the bestselling author of twenty-two novels and story collections set in and around Washington, D.C. He is also a producer and Emmy-nominated writer of HBO's The Wire, Treme, The Deuce and We Own This City. He lives in Maryland.