The 25th Hour

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Acerbically captivating first novel...Benioff creates a pungent, funny urban tableau full of shrewd operators and unfulfilled desires' -- The New York Times 'As unusual as it is well wrought: it resonates with a Whitmanesque sense of the city's possibilities and unsatisfied longings' -- The New Yorker 'David Benioff's headlong suspense novel is a deceptively simple chronicle of [Monty's] final day of freedom...Working in a novelistic form of "real time", Benioff shows a knack for critiquing his ge

UK Kirkus review

In this acclaimed first novel by David Benioff, Monty Brogan is confronting a lengthy term in prison. The night before his sentence begins, he and his two closest friends go out on the town and recall their exploits on the toughest streets of New York. The result is a lengthy exploration of complex psyches. In places the story is comical, in others it is breathlessly brash. Benioff has created a detailed and probing study of the New York lowlife, with dialogue as sharp as the razor in any Bronx barbers shop. Monty is a likeable protagonist. We feel for him from the outset when he is seen - symoblically - befriending a badly-mangled pitbull terrier, and Benioff manages to retain our sympathy for him even as we discover his murky past. Driven by character rather than plot, the story nevertheless takes off in its final section, as Monty reveals that he has one last plan - and it's a shocker. Benioff has a flawless ear for dialogue and a wide insight into the psychology of everyone he turns his gaze on. Moving and absorbing, this is an unforgettable portrait of a cosmopolitan city on the edge of vacuum. (Kirkus UK)

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