Deacon King Kong

CHOSEN BY BARACK OBAMA AS A FAVOURITE READ OF 2020
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2020, NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST

From a winner of the National Book Award

The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots — for no apparent reason — the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church's baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat's best friend — Hot Sausage — to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church.

DEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others.

From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital.

'A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year's best novels.' — The Washington Post

'Deacon King Kong is deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane; McBride's ability to inhabit his characters' foibles, all-too-human interiority helps transform a fine book into a great one' — The New York Times Book Review