First published 1989
Billy Bathgate lives in the tenements of the East Bronx when he catches the eye of Dutch Schultz, the notorious gangster who once went by Arthur Flegenheimer. Billy talks his way into the inner circle of Schultz's criminal empire, becoming the gang's good luck charm and apprentice. He witnesses midnight boat rides in New York Harbor where enemies disappear with cement around their feet. He sees window washers fall from Seventh Avenue scaffolds and attends three day parties in West Side brothels. Billy moves between blue lit Broadway nightclubs and elegant socialites, between Tammany ward heelers and men of the cloth. Black Packards cruise the streets where gunfights erupt without warning. The gang includes Lulu Rosenkrantz, a brutal gunman, Irving who handles bodies with the same precision he uses to mix drinks, and Abbadabba Berman, who rigs the numbers racket. As Billy sinks deeper into this violent world, he must navigate between loyalty and survival in a place where even infants become casualties of gang warfare.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: East Bronx, New York Harbor, Seventh Avenue, Tammany, West Side
Period: World War II
323 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: violence