Paris Trout, Paperback/Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter's National Book Award-winning tour de force tells the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that shatters lives and exposes the hypocrisies of a small Southern town. The time and place: Cotton Point, Georgia, just after World War II. The event: the murder of a fourteen-year-old black girl by a respected white citizen named Paris Trout, who feels he's done absolutely nothing wrong. As a trial looms, the crime eats away at the social fabric of Cotton Point, through its facade of manners and civility. Trout's indifference haunts his defense lawyer; his festering paranoia warps his timid, quiet wife; and Trout himself moves closer to madness as he becomes obsessed with his cause--and his vendettas. Praise for Paris Trout "A masterpiece, complex and breathtaking . . . Pete] Dexter portrays his characters with marvelous sharpness." -- Los Angeles Times "A psychological spellbinder that will take your breath away and probably interfere with your sleep." -- The Washington Post Book World "Dexter's brilliant understanding of the Deep South has allowed him to capture much of its essence--its bitter class distinctions, its violence, its strangeness--with a fidelity of detail and an ear for speech that I have rarely encountered since Flannery O'Connor." --William Styron "Dexter's powerfully emotional novel doesn't have any brakes. Hang on, because you won't be able to stop until the finish." -- Chicago Tribune About the Author: Pete Dexter is the author of the National Book Award-winning novel Paris Trout as well as Spooner, Paper Trails, God's Pocket, Deadwood, Brotherly Love, and Train . He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Sacramento Bee, and has contributed to many magazines, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy . His screenplays include Rush and Mulholland Falls . Dexter was born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Illinois, and eastern South Dakota. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington.