Tom Sawyer, Holden Caulfield and more recently Billy Bathgate have grabbed the imagination, pity and interest of readers for many reasons, not least because they reflect the enormous diversity of American childhood, coming as they do from different eras, social backgrounds and ethnic origins.

In his Billy Bathgate, best-selling author E.L. Doctorow paints an enthralling and poignant picture of a 15-year-old hustler from the Bronx slums of the late 1920s and early 1930s drawn into the murderous world of Arthur Flegenheimer, better known then and now as Dutch Schultz. As seen through Billy's non-judgmental eyes, the reader is given an extraordinary insight as to how power is acquired, wielded and transmitted in the US, whether it be in the hands of good or evil men. In fine, Billy Bathgate is hugely entertaining, pounding with a fierce energy, raw irony and teeming with characters in the hands of the master storyteller that is E.L. Doctorow.