Hubert Selby Jr Books In Order

Novels

  1. Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964)
  2. The Room (1971)
  3. The Demon (1976)
  4. Requiem for a Dream (1979)
  5. The Willow Tree (1999)
  6. Waiting Period (2002)

Collections

  1. Song of the Silent Snow (1986)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Hubert Selby Jr Books Overview

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a raw depiction of life amongst New York’s junkies, hustlers, drag queens and prostitutes. An unforgettable cast of characters inhabits the housing projects, bars and streets of Brooklyn: Georgette, a hopelessly romantic and tormented transvestite; Vinnie, a disaffected and volatile youth who has never been on the right side of the law; Tralala, who can find no escape from her loveless existence; Harry, a power hungry strike leader with a fatal secret. Living on the edge, always walking on the wild side, their alienation and aggression masks a desperate, deep human need for affection and kinship. Banned in Britain on first publication in 1964, Last Exit to Brooklyn brought its ex marine, drug addict author instant notoriety. Its truthfulness stunned a generation and continues to shock to this day.

The Room

Secluded in his remand cell, a small time petty criminal surrenders himself to the sad*istic fantasies of hatred, rage and the powerless lust for revenge that are trapped inside him. Selby’s second novel, the sequel to Last Exit To Brooklyn, is a claustrophobic descent into a man locked away in a loveless society.

The Demon

A major American author of a stature with William Burroughs and Joseph Heller.?Los Angeles TimesHarry White is a man haunted by a satyr’s lust and an obsessive need for sin and retribution. The more Harry succeeds a good marriage, a good corporate job the more desperate he becomes, as a life of petty crime leads to fraud and murder and, eventually, to apocalyptic violence. Author of the controversial cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby began as a writer of short fiction. He plunges the reader head first into the densely realized worlds of his protagonists, in which the details of daily life rub shoulders with obsession and madness. Although fundamentally concerned with morality, Selby’s own sense of humility prevents him from preaching. He offers instead a passionate empathy with the ordinary dreams and aspirations of his characters, a brilliant ear for the urban vernacular and for the voices of conscience and self deceit that torment his characters.’Selby’s place is in the front rank of American novelists…
to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.’?The New York Times Book Review

Requiem for a Dream

Over twenty years after its first publication in 1978, Requiem for a Dream makes it to the big screen in a major motion picture starring Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto, and Christopher McDonald. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the highly acclaimed director of Pi, the movie was released in November 2000. In this searing novel, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone, and a girlfriend fantasize about scoring a pound of uncut hero*in and getting rich. But their habit gets the better of them, consumes them and destroys their dreams. ‘Selby’s place is in the front rank of American novelists. His work has the power, the intimacy with suffering and morality, the honesty and moral urgency of Dostoevsky’s…
. To understand Selby’s work is to understand the anguish of America.’ The New York Times Book Review

The Willow Tree

Hubert Selby is probably one of the six best novelists writing in the English language.?Financial TimesBobby is young and black. He shares a cramped apartment in the south Bronx with his mother, his younger siblings and the ceaselessly scratching rats that infest the walls behind his bed. Barely a teenager, he is old beyond his years. The best thing in Bobby’s life is Maria, his Hispanic girlfriend. They are in love, and they have big plans for the summer ahead. Their lives are irrevocably shattered when a vicious Hispanic street gang attack the couple as they walk to school. With Bobby savagely beaten and Maria lying in hospital, terrified and engulfed by the pain of her badly burned face, The Willow Tree takes the reader on on a volcanically powerful trip through the lives of America’s dispossessed inner city dwellers. Into this bleak and smouldering hinterland, however, Selby introduces a small but vital note of love and compassion. When Bobby’s bruised and bloodied body is discovered by Moishe, an aged concentration camp survivor, an unlikely friendship begins. As Moishe slowly, painfully, reveals his own tragic story, Bobby struggles angrily with his desperate need for revenge. ‘Selby’s place is in the front rank of American novelists…
to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.’?The New York Times Book ReviewAlso by Hubert Selby Jr available from Marion Boyars: Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream and Song of the Silent Snow.

Waiting Period

In this highly polished and slightly twisted moral tale, a man pulls back from the brink of suicide when his application to buy a gun with which to shoot himself is delayed. Instead of throwing his life away, he decides to spend all his time and effort disposing of those who he feels deserve to die. Targeting a bureaucrat in the Veterans Administration, he devises an ingenious method of murdering people without trace. With a renewed zest for living he embarks on a joyful killing spreeI Hubert Selby Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928. After a career in the merchant marine cut short by illness, he achieved international recognition for his acclaimed cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn. Darren Aronofsky’s film adaptation of Selby s Requiem for a Dream, starring Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn was one of independent cinema s biggest hits in 2001. box Also available: The Room TP $14. 95, 0 7145 3038 7 CUSA The Demon TP $14. 95, 0 7145 2599 5 CUSA Song of the Silent Snow TP $14. 95, 0 7145 3050 6 CUSA The Willow Tree TC $25. 95, 0 7145 3024 7 CUSA

Song of the Silent Snow

Hubert Selby is probably one of the six best novelists writing in the English language.?Financial TimesAuthor of controversial cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby began as a writer of short fiction. He excels in this form, plunging the reader head first into the densely realized worlds of his protagonists, in which the details of daily life rub shoulders with obsession and madness. Although fundamentally concerned with morality, Selby’s own sense of humility prevents him from preaching. He offers instead a passionate empathy with the ordinary dreams and aspirations of his characters, a brilliant ear for the urban vernacular and for the voices of conscience and self deceit that torment his characters.’A major American author of a stature with William Burroughs and Joseph Heller.’?Los Angeles Times’Selby’s place is in the front rank of American novelists…
to understand his work is to understand the anguish of America.’?The New York Times Book ReviewNovels by Hubert Selby Jr available from Marion Boyars: Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream and The Willow Tree..

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