Books by Nelson Algren

This modern American classic is an unflinching look at post-war America; introduced by Irvine Welsh and afterword by Kurt Vonnegut

With its depictions of the downtrodden prostitutes, bootleggers, and hustlers of Perdido Street in the old French Quarter of 1930s New Orleans, A Walk on the Wild Side found a place in the imaginations of all the generations that have followed since. Perhaps his own words describe the book best: "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind".

The book that inspired Lou Reed's 'A Walk on the Wild Side' and was made into a screenplay by John Fante