Little Boy Blue: A Novel

Here is the quintessential story of a young hoodlum's coming of age in post-Depression America, from the undisputed master of the genre.

“Bunker is a true original of American letters. His books are criminal classics.” ―James Ellroy

“The best first-person crime novel I’ve ever read.” —Quentin Tarantino

Alex Hamilton is young, intelligent, savvy, and independent—but also subject to violent fits of rage. Raised within the confines of a system that has done nothing but provide him with pain, his frustration and anger are completely natural—and inherently dangerous. Rebellious since his parents split up, Alex is constantly running from foster homes and institutions, yearning to be with his father, a broken man who cannot give his son the home he desperately needs. As Alex is pulled between well-meaning but exhausted social workers and viciously cruel authority figures, his emotions and actions are forever careening off these two disparate influences. Only one constant remains: his no-good, criminal-minded peers, who are all too ready to plant illegal ideas in a young, bright mind that’s already well on its way to social deviancy. Little Boy Blue vividly documents this destruction, allowing the reader to sift through the wreckage of a childhood gone terribly awry.

Praise for Little Boy Blue

“Bunker shoots straight—his direct and transparent prose captures the “primacy of violence” that defines life in the slammer . . . Bunker clearly articulates the “code” of prison life and the pathology of the career criminal in raw, muscular prose.” ―Kirkus Reviews

© 2024 St. Martin's Griffin (E-bog): 9781466841659

Release date

E-bog: 1. maj 2024