Hubert Selby, Jr.

A Novel

Requiem for a Dream

A raw depiction of life amongst New York's junkies, hustlers, drag queens and prostitutes. Meet Georgette, a hopelessly romantic and tormented transvestite; Vinnie, a disaffected and volatile youth who has never been on the right side of the law; and Harry, a power-hungry strike leader.

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Room

The Demon

Song of the silent snow

Le Démon

This book is about four individuals who pursued the American Dream. In this searing novel, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone, and a girlfriend fantasize about scoring a pound of uncut heroin and getting rich. But their heroin habit gets the better of them, consumes them and destroys their dreams and Harry's mother's addiction to diet pills lands her in a state mental hospital.

Rekviem po mechte

Bobby - young, black and happily in love with Hispanic girlfriend Maria - lives in a cramped Bronx apartment with his mother, his younger siblings and walls full of rats. But when Bobby and Maria are brutally attacked by a Hispanic gang, leaving the couple severely injured, everything changes. Maria may be lost, but, under the unusual care of the reclusive doctor he knows only as Moishe, Bobby might just have stumbled into a hopeful future of which he could never have previously dreamed. The Willow Treeis a searing trip of despair and hope through the lives of America's dispossessed inner-city residents. 'Selby's work has the power, the intimacy with suffering and morality, the honesty and moral urgency of Dostoevsky's.' The New York Times Book Review 'A novelist whose insight and humanity we should treasure for a long time to come' Guardian

The Willow Tree

Driven to desperation by the hand the world has dealt him, the suicidal narrator of Waiting Period attempts to buy a gun to end his life. But a computer malfunction causes a delay with the gun license: a life-saving event that sees the man questioning why he should die when there are so many others he believes should go before him. Planning the perfect murder, he chooses a victim - a bureaucrat responsible for denying him his benefits - and discovers to his amazement that his plan works perfectly. But now this man has found his purpose in life, how far will he go with his mission? In his final novel, Hubert Selby Jr. offers a shocking and fascinating examination of morality, murder and one man's personal war. 'When Selby decides to attack, it is with the shock of a practised mugger and with the speed and economy of a poet.' The Los Angeles Times 'His books fill you up with a mixture of bile and beatification. It's like reading the Bible without all the religious redemptive stuff.' Independent

Hubert Selby, Jr.

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