Bronxland
The top-rated novel on Goodreads' list of "Best Historical Coming of Age Books"!
Welcome to Bronxland by Paul Thaler—and this uproarious and heartrending coming-of-age novel set in the Bronx circa '60s. Paul Wolfenthal is a peculiar 13-year-old kid grappling with the absurdities of his young Bronx life circa 1960. He visits the dead, hears voices in his head, despises Richard Nixon, is infatuated with his Marilyn Monroe look-alike math teacher, and is a choice victim for the neighborhood’s sadistic bully. And then Paul really starts running into trouble.
Paul is, in fact, a kid in search of heroes, alive and otherwise, and finds them in John Kennedy and Harry Houdini, both of whom cross into his life. But these are strange and even dangerous times. Hovering in the shadows are “the demons” that haunt Paul’s young childhood dreams, only to come alive and shatter his world. One steals away a neighborhood child. And then his president.
Set against the turbulent history of the times, Bronxland tugs on a kaleidoscope of emotions. A place of the heart known to all of us, with our own story to tell of growing up, of trying to make sense of our life, with everything that comes along.
About Paul Thaler (The Bronx, New York Author)
Paul Thaler is a former journalist and the author of the critically acclaimed The Spectacle: Media and the Making of the OJ Simpson Story, and The Watchful Eye: American Justice in the Age of the Television Trial. Bronxland is his debut novel published by Black Opal Books. In addition to his writings, Paul has also been an on-air media commentator for numerous television cable news programs and documentaries including those on CNN and HBO. He holds both a Masters of Arts in Journalism and a Ph.D. in Communications from New York University. Paul is a longtime resident of the Bronx, New York, where he lives with his wife, Amy, and their three children, Matthew, Robby and Rebecca.