Author Biography

Born in Newark, Nick Tosches lives in New York City. He is an American poet, novelist, biographer, and journalist. He has described his literary influences as "Hesiod, Sappho, Christopher Marlowe, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, Charles Olson, and God knows who else." Writing in a lineage that includes William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, and Hubert Selby, Jr., Nick Tosches may be America's last real literary outlaw. In more than 30 years of nonfiction writing, he has opened up the dark heart of America's greatest music (Country, Hellfire, Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, Dino), unveiled secrets of the world's most successful criminals (Power on Earth), delved into the mystery of a boxer's tragic greatness (The Devil and Sonny Liston), and taken us on a midnight drive through Phnom Penh (The Last Opium Den). In his fiction, Tosches has traveled even farther. His novels are fearless: shining a light on the darkest parts of ourselves with fierce prose free of pretension. His most recent novel, Me and the Devil, is what all good novels should be: brilliant, blistering, and dangerous.

Review

"This is the best, from one of the best writers around. Nick Tosches knows the devil as well as any man has." Keith Richards "Words and wisdom that I shall carry with me into the fucking dirt." Johnny Depp "An extraordinary writer....It is the vastness of Nick Tosches' heart that makes it possible to reveal the darkness." Hubert Selby, Jr. "An American classic" Greil Marcus "I'm an admirer of anything and everything Nick Tosches writes." Tom Robbins "One of the greatest living American writers." Dallas Observer "Tosches can't write a dull book. He sets his foot firmly on your throat from the start; he won't let up, and you won't want him to." Washington Post "Nick Tosches is a beautiful thug [who] has always beaten back a demon while inhabiting the very soul of the beast." Philadelphia City Paper "Nick Tosches stands out as the kind of writer other writers only dream of becoming-amazing at fiction, unparalleled in journalism and biography, and possessed of a stature and genius." Jerry Stahl "A writer of rare humanity." GQ "[Tosches writes] without illusion and yet with real sympathy, call it a form of love. That is a real achievement of writing and feeling." David Remnick

Long Description

Once upon a time, Nick Tosches was a young boy.

Review Text

"This is the best, from one of the best writers around. Nick Tosches knows the devil as well as any man has." Keith Richards "Words and wisdom that I shall carry with me into the fucking dirt." Johnny Depp "An extraordinary writer....It is the vastness of Nick Tosches' heart that makes it possible to reveal the darkness." Hubert Selby, Jr. "An American classic" Greil Marcus "I'm an admirer of anything and everything Nick Tosches writes." Tom Robbins "One of the greatest living American writers." Dallas Observer "Tosches can't write a dull book. He sets his foot firmly on your throat from the start; he won't let up, and you won't want him to." Washington Post "Nick Tosches is a beautiful thug [who] has always beaten back a demon while inhabiting the very soul of the beast." Philadelphia City Paper "Nick Tosches stands out as the kind of writer other writers only dream of becoming-amazing at fiction, unparalleled in journalism and biography, and possessed of a stature and genius." Jerry Stahl "A writer of rare humanity." GQ "[Tosches writes] without illusion and yet with real sympathy, call it a form of love. That is a real achievement of writing and feeling." David Remnick

Details