Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Paperback – Bargain Price, September 13, 2005
Description
"A story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus's tale microcosmically condenses the politico-historic oddities of his place and era into one entertaining and tidy narrative... With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker." --New York Times Sunday Book Review (Editors' Choice) "An instant classic.... At once sad and funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a rollicking tale of the Wild East, also has a deeply compelling political purpose." --Canada's Globe and Mail (A Best Book of the Year pick) "Outrageously entertaining... An essential absurdism is never far from the surface...This fast-moving story is a rip-roaring cops and robbers saga with a Mitteleuropean heart." --San Francisco Chronicle "One of the best non-fiction books I will ever read. It's that good." --Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick "Marvelous. This book will stand as a vivid memento of modern Budapest's formative years." --The Budapest Times "Its hard to imagine what journalist Julian Rubinstein thought when he stumbled across the twisted tale of Attila Ambrus, but his fascination finds riveting realization in Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a nonfiction account of a story that must be read to be believed... Set against a rich backdrop of hope and despair, the book is a heartrending study of a character whose bungling tells the story of a world much bigger than his own." --The Onion, AV Club --Winner, Borders "Original Voices" Non-fiction Book of the Year--Finalist, 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Fact Crime--Finalist, 2005 Anthony Award, Best Non-fiction--Finalist, 2007, Audie Award, Best Audio Book--Film rights purchased by Johnny Depp Julian Rubinstein has made a career finding and bringing unforgettable characters to life and breaking bizarre and often dangerous stories from faraway places. Whether with a fleeing Indian tribe in Brazil, with the Hell's Angels in Canada, or with John McEnroe in his art gallery in SoHo, Julian has consistently proven able to get the story no one else could. His journalism has earned inclusion in the BEST AMERICAN CRIME WRITING anthology and two citations from BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING. He began his career as a sports reporter and writer, first for The Washington Post and then Sports Illustrated. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Arts & Leisure Section, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Outside, Salon, and Details, where he is a contributing editor. Born in the Bronx and raised in Denver, he currently lives in New York City. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is his first book. Read more
Features & Highlights
- DESCRIPTION: Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild, improbably true story of the legendary outlaw of Budapest. Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant--if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinsteins bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.
