The time is the 1930s. Buddy Sandifer, dressed in his natty white flannels, baby-blue shirt, striped tie, tan-and-white shoes, and coconut-straw hat with polka-dot band, is falling into one of his moods. Owner of a used-car lot and father of a fifteen-year-old son with a penchant for sex manuals, Buddy has decided to murder his wife and marry his mistress, Laverne, a robust blonde who cooks his favorite meal of fried pork chops, fried potatoes, and fried apples while weari...

In 1964, Little Big Man gave us the reminiscences of Jack Crabb - a white orphan raised among the Cheyenne - who returns to "civilized" society, where (among other things) he tangles with Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok, and ends up as the only white survivor of Custer's Last Stand. At the end of Little Big Man, Jack's supposed death at age 111 cut short his tale. A newly discovered manuscript, however, reveals that Jack had faked his death to get out of his publishing contract, and he now...

“The truth is always made up of little particulars which sound ridiculous when repeated.” So says Jack Crabb, the 111-year-old narrator of Thomas Berger’s 1964 masterpiece of American fiction, Little Big Man. Berger claimed the Western as serious literature with this savage and epic account of one man’s extraordinary double life.After surviving the massacre of his pioneer family, ten-year-old Jack is adopted by an Indian chief who nicknames him Li...

The legendary Jack Crabb takes another riotous romp through the Old West in an acclaimed novel that's "impressive and delightful . . . very Mark Twain" ( Daily News, New York).Jack Crabb is now 112 years old, and he isn't done spinning yarns. In this sequel to Berger's beloved novel Little Big Man, one of literature's wiliest survivors continues his breathtaking tall tales of the Old West.Crabb claims to have witnessed most of the great his...

A "splendid" and witty take on the Arthurian legend by the acclaimed author of Little Big Man ( The New York Times Book Review).The myth of King Arthur has been told countless ways since the sixth century, always combining action, adventure, romance, and tragedy. In Arthur Rex, Thomas Berger updates the legend in irreverent fashion, forever changing King Arthur and his Round Table. In Berger's medieval England, the damsel in distress is ne...

The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Thomas Berger's debut novel of a young man tumultuously coming of age in postwar GermanyCarlo Reinhart, a young American army medic stationed in Germany, confronts a disturbing new world following the end of World War II. Living in Berlin, a city fractured into barricaded sectors by the occupying powers, Reinhart begins to drive himself mad with memories of the evils he has witnessed and questions about how the atrocities took place. When he meets an idealistic Jew...

Thomas Berger breaks all the rules in this detective story that's less who-done-it, and more why-done-it."An original and powerful tale of a saintly murderer."—Arthur Koestler"Detweiler is one of the most complex characters in modern fiction...the eeriest thing about him is that he is wholly believable, which is to say, of course, that Thomas Berger is a magnificent novelist."— National ReviewMeet Joseph Detweiler—a polite, sincere, and though...

"Frightening . . . [the] domestic confessions as expressed by the accomplished satiric wit of Mr. Berger are certainly not to be trusted . . . wonderfully bizarre." — The New York Times Book ReviewChuck Burgoyne appears to be the perfect houseguest. Between his impeccable manners and gourmet breakfasts, the Graves family is utterly charmed by him. He even rescues a family member from drowning in the ocean! But then one morning, Chuck does ...

The Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of Little Big Man proves that sometimes war doesn't change a person, but the world he lives in.Carlo Reinhart returns home from his service in Germany expecting the Ohio he left not too long ago. What he finds instead is new technology, old attitudes, and people he's not sure he can relate to anymore.As Reinhart stumbles back into life as a civilian, he finds camaraderie in the most unlikely places. A former clas...

"The characters in Best Friends...are...recognizably human in their weaknesses and their destinies. It is Berger's genius as an observer and storyteller that we never, for a moment, take our eyes off them."—Jeffrey Frank, The Washington Post Book World A moving story about childhood friendships falling under the strain of adulthood quickly becomes so much more in this tale that is as absurd as it is true to life from the author of Little Big Man. Roy Courtright and Sam Grendy have been bes...

Little Big Man author Thomas Berger takes the murder mystery and runs with it in this trip around a quiet suburb with a dark secret."A cutting, ironic wit and a precision of detail so deadly it hurts when you laugh." — Ms.Mary Jane Jones doesn't like to meddle. She's content to stay out of the admittedly tame gossip of her suburban neighborhood, even in the fresh loneliness of widowhood. In fact, if it wasn't for the daily invites to dinner ...