To open this book is to enter the perilous, thrilling world of Billy Bathgate, the brazen boy who is accepted into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch Schultz gang. Like an urban Tom Sawyer, Billy takes us along on his fateful adventures as he becomes good-luck charm, apprentice, and finally protégé to one of the great murdering gangsters of the Depression-era underworld in New York City. The luminous transformation of fact into fiction that is E. L. Doctorow’s trademark comes to triumphant fruition in Billy Bathgate, a peerless coming-of-age tale and one of Doctorow’s boldest and most beloved bestsellers.

About Billy Bathgate

To listen to this audiobook is to enter the perilous, thrilling world of Billy Bathgate, the brazen boy who is accepted into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch Schultz gang. Like an urban Tom Sawyer, Billy takes us along on his fateful adventures as he becomes good-luck charm, apprentice, and finally protégé to one of the great murdering gangsters of the Depression-era underworld in New York City. The luminous transformation of fact into fiction that is E. L. Doctorow’s trademark comes to triumphant fruition in Billy Bathgate, a peerless coming-of-age tale and one of Doctorow’s boldest and most beloved bestsellers.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Fred Ahlert Music Corporation and Henderson Music Company: Excerpts from the lyrics to “Bye Bye Blackbird,” lyrics by Mort Dixon, music by Ray Henderson. Copyright 1926. Copyright renewed 1953. All rights for the extended term administered by Fred Ahlert Music Corporation for Olde Clover Leaf Music and Henderson Music Company, c/o William
Krasilovsky, Feinman and Krasilovsky. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bourne Co./New York Music Publishers: Excerpt from the lyrics to “Me and My Shadow,” words by Billy Rose, music by Al Jolson and Dave Dreyer. Copyright 1927 Borune Co. Copyright renewed, International Copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The Songwriters Guild of America and CPP Belwin, Inc.: Excerpt from the lyrics to “The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else,” by Gus Kahn and Isham Jones. Copyright 1924. U.S. rights renewed 1980 Gilbert Keyes Music and Bantam Music. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.: Excerpt from the lyrics to “Limehouse Blues,” by Philip Braham and Douglas Furber. Copyright 1922 Warner Bros. Inc. (Renewed). All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Read An Excerpt

Reading Guide

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Also by E.L. Doctorow

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About E.L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow’s works of fiction include Andrew’s Brain, Homer & Langley, The March, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, The Book of Daniel, City of God, Welcome to Hard Times, Loon Lake, World’s Fair, The Waterworks, and All the Time in the… More about E.L. Doctorow

About E.L. Doctorow

Product Details

Category: Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction

Paperback | $16.00
Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks
Jun 29, 2010 | 336 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780812981179

Category: Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction

Ebook | $12.99
Published by Random House
Dec 01, 2010 | 336 Pages | ISBN 9780307767387

Category: Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Audiobooks

Audiobook Download | $20.00
Published by Random House Audio
Mar 04, 2014 | 676 Minutes | ISBN 9780804149631

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Praise

“A wonderful addition to the ranks of American boy heroes . . . Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer with more poetry, Holden Caulfield with more zest and spirit . . . The kind of book you find yourself finishing at three in the morning after promising at midnight that you’ll stop at the next page.”—New York Times Book Review

“A modern American masterpiece . . . Doctorow takes up the legacies of Fitzgerald and Cheever and adds to them a savage and erotic splendor of his own.”—John le Carré

“Indelible in its fierce energy, its relentless irony, its rawness.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Riveting . . . mesmerizing . . . unforgettable.”—Time

“Enthralling.”—Los Angeles Times