The 25th Hour

Brilliantly conceived, this gripping crime drama boasts dead-on dialogue, chiaroscuro portraits of New York's social strata and an inescapable crescendo of tension. Monty's solution to his agonising dilemmas will shock even hardened suspense lovers * Publishers Weekly * David Benioff's headlong suspense novel is a deceptively simple chronicle of [Monty's] final day of freedom . . . Working in a novelistic form of "real time", Benioff shows a knack for critiquing his genre while revitalising its cliches . . . Instead of yielding mere irony, the author, in his first novel, achieves both pathos and excitement * Entertainment Weekly * As unusual as it is well wrought: it resonates with a Whitmanesque sense of the city's possibilities and unsatisfied longings * New Yorker * Acerbically captivating first novel . . . Benioff creates a pungent, funny urban tableau full of shrewd operators and unfulfilled desires * New York Times * This character-driven crime novel is a spellbinding portrait of three friends confronting the consequences of their carefree youth on the streets of New York. * From the Publisher's Description *

From the writer of the award-winning Game of Thrones series for HBO based on the books of George R. R. Martin. 'David Benioff is an exceptional storyteller' Khaled Hosseini '[An] acerbically captivating first novel' New York Times Also adapted as a feature film by Spike Lee starring Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman Monty Brogan starts a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs tomorrow. Tonight is his last night of freedom. His father wants him to run. His drug-lord boss, Uncle Blue, wants to know if he squealed. His girlfriend isn't sure what she wants, and his two best friends know one thing for sure; after he goes in, he will never be the same. 'As unusual as it is well wrought: it resonates with a Whitmanesque sense of the city's possibilities and unsatisfied longings' New Yorker