The Turnaround

Contributors

By George Pelecanos

On Sale
Apr 7, 2009
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Back Bay Books
ISBN-13
9780316040921

On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever. Thirty-five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it.

The Turnaround takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the ’70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, The Turnaround is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, “the best crime novelist in America.” –Oregonian

  • PRAISE FOR THE TURNAROUND:

    "Yet another gem of urban noir....A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel of crime, friendship, aging and redemption."
    Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • "[Pelecanos] tells a tight, suspenseful story. And he packs enough of a wallop to put THE TURNAROUND on an express bus of its own."
    Janet Maslin, New York Times
  • "Pelecanos does what few, if any, American writers do: He tells the truth. Twain told the truth; Faulkner toyed with the truth; Hemingway told his version of the truth, and Chandler certainly told a cold, cynical truth. Pelecanos's truth is from deep in the heart, from places where red blood cells know more than all the sweet, heady words truth usually hides behind."
    Randy Michael Signor, Chicago Sun-Times
  • "George Pelecanos is one of the most literary of America's crime writers, and like most of his books, THE TURNAROUND is more than mere entertainment. This beautifully written novel, rich with carefully wrought characters, is both a fine crime story and a thoughtful exploration of race relations in the lives of ordinary Americans."
    Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press

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$14.99

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$16.99 CAD

George Pelecanos

About the Author

GEORGE PELECANOS is the author of twenty-two novels and story collections set in and around Washington, DC, and has been the recipient of numerous international writing awards. He is a screenwriter, essayist, and television writer/producer whose credits include The Wire, Treme, The Deuce, and We Own This City. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. 

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