Deacon King Kong

The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportscoat shoots – for no apparent reason – the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church’s baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportscoat’s best friend – Hot Sausage – to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. This novel is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten.