The Jerry Lee Lewis Story

Hellfire

'The greatest rock 'n' roll biography ever written' Rolling Stone 
 
'You're lookin' at a livin' legend.' He said, and then fell silent for a moment. 'Y'know, that really worries me. I always thought a legend was somethin' dead.' 
 
The tormented life of Jerry Lee Lewis is the most fabled in rock 'n' roll history. 
 
Demon-shadowed and God-fearing, his relentless, all-consuming pursuit of self-destruction clouded his life and his music. 
 
Born in deep south Louisiana and raised on the Old Testament, 'The Killer' was continually torn between a harsh Pentecostal God and the worship of alcohol, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Nick Tosches's electrifying account chronicles the monumental highs and lows of the ever indomitable and ever wild Jerry Lee, who rises to dizzying heights as a rock 'n' roll icon, only to lose it time and time again to his inner demons. 
 
Searing, mythic and gloriously written, Hellfire is an evocative, audacious journey into the soul of rock 'n' roll itself. 
 
'The finest book ever written about a rock 'n' roll performer' - Greil Marcus 
 
'The best rock-and-roll biography ever written' - Newsday 
 
'Probably the best, certainly the most readable, account of a rock performer's life' - Guardian 
 
'A work of art' - The Boston Globe

Quite simply the best rock and roll biography ever written

The best rock 'n' roll biography ever written . . . There is a novelistic intensity to this story of tragedy, triumph and love. Its portrayal of a society alien to mainstream America is riveting

Brilliant . . . the best account we have of how the first rock and rollers were torn between salvation and the Devil's music

The tormented life of Jerry Lee Lewis is the most fabled in rock 'n' roll history. 
 
Demon-shadowed and God-fearing, his relentless, all-consuming pursuit of self-destruction clouded his life and his music. 
 
Born in deep south Louisiana and raised on the Old Testament, 'The Killer' was continually torn between a harsh Pentecostal God and the worship of alcohol, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Nick Tosches's electrifying account chronicles the monumental highs and lows of the ever indomitable and ever wild Jerry Lee, who rises to dizzying heights as a rock 'n' roll icon, only to lose it time and time again to his inner demons. 
 
Searing, mythic and gloriously written, Hellfire is an evocative, audacious journey into the soul of rock 'n' roll itself.

A Biography of Sonny Liston

Night Train

A breathtakingly brutal and evocative account of the life of infamous boxing world champion Sonny Liston 
 
'Dazzling . . . An unforgettable journey to some of boxing's darkest places' Steve Bunce, author of Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing 
 
Sonny Liston is one of the most controversial men the boxing world has ever seen. He rose from a childhood of grinding poverty to become 1962's heavyweight world champion. He spent time in prison, he was known to have mob connections, he was hated and vilified by his public. And after he lost the world title to Cassius Clay in a spectacular fall from grace, he died under mysterious and never fully explained circumstances. 
 
Sonny Liston's life story is an unsolved mystery and an underappreciated tragedy. In uncompromising detail, Nick Tosches captures the shadowy figure of Liston, this most mesmerising and enigmatic of boxing antiheroes. 
 
'Crackling [and] unmissable . . . A warped fairy tale and a dark murder mystery' Maxim 
 
'Nick Tosches is an extraordinary writer' Hubert Selby Jr, author of Requiem for a Dream 
 
'A profound voyage into the twisted psyche of a sportsman . . . Brings you face to face with [a] hard life and ugly death' FHM

Dazzling, unforgiving... Tosches and Liston smash their way through fights and beaten men... Tosches understood the large heart and vicious ways of Liston and together they take an unforgettable journey to some of boxing's darkest places

Steve Bunce, author of 'Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing'

Shooting from the hip, Nick Tosches brings Liston and the lurid underworld of boxing brilliantly to life... The fullest portrait yet of this troubled man. Told in the spare, muscular prose Tosches is known for, Liston's story is the tale of a man who "died on the day he was born"

Liston's story comes alive though hard facts and breathtaking writing... As much about boxing as it is about the darkest side of the American Dream

Tosches has a talent for getting inside the skin of men [and] drawing out meaty stories... The prose sizzles - hard, tough writing suited to a hard, tough subject

Crackling [and] unmissable... A warped fairy tale and a dark murder mystery

Brash [and] astute... Tosches gets in the ring and slugs it out from the first bell as if he were the twin reincarnation of John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey. [He] picks the dirtiest, ugliest, saddest man the fight game has thrown up in a hundred years and rides the story all the way to the grave

A fantastic book about a life that started in darkness and continued to go deeper into the darkness until the only light was death. Nick Tosches is an extraordinary writer

Hubert Selby Jr, author of 'Requiem for a Dream'

A profound voyage into the twisted psyche of a sportsman... Brings you face to face with [a] hard life and ugly death

Tosches is a remarkable reporter... While Liston demolishes opponents with the brutality of his blows, Tosches goes down the mean streets of professional boxing, ventures into the shadowy corners of mob dealings and dares to reveal the fixed fights... A great story

[A] hyper-noir meditation on the devil and his relationship to Sonny Liston... Tosches has attitude to spare, agile and sublime, smooth and cool... A captivating, tragic tale

Grandmaster of grit lit, Tosches writes eloquently about America's underbelly

Nick Tosches was born in New Jersey and is the author of HELLFIRE, and the bestselling DINO.

"[Night Train] is as much about Liston and boxing as it is about the darkest side of the American Dream. Liston's story comes alive though clean, evocative prose, hard facts and lyrical, occasionally breathtaking writing"  Time Out

Nick Tosches

The Arnold Rothstein Story

'Once upon a time, when New York City lived and breathed, there was a man marked for death, like us all ...' 
 
Arnold Rothstein was one of the most mysterious figures in Manhattan's history: a godfather of organized crime - rumoured to have fixed baseball's World Series - yet a peer of the Morgans and Rockefellers. But one night in 1928 he was shot in the stomach and died shortly afterwards, refusing to speak a word concerning his own murder. 
 
Nick Tosches jumps feet first into Rothstein's life to lay bare his legacy - to New York and to the whole Western world - and to try and make some sense of what the 'king of the Jews' means to us. What we get back is an angry howl right out of the tortured heart of America itself.

Nick Tosches

Books by Nick Tosches

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