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Start giftingBonnie and Clyde
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Learn moreBonnie and Clyde may be the most notorious—and celebrated—outlaw couple America has ever known. This is the true story of how they got that way.
Bonnie and Clyde—we’ve been on a first name basis with them for almost a hundred years. Immortalized in movies, songs, and pop-culture references, they are remembered mostly for their storied romance and tragic deaths. But what was life really like for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the early 1930s? How did two dirt-poor teens from west Texas morph from vicious outlaws to legendary couple? And why?
Award-winning author Karen Blumenthal devoted months to tracing the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde, unearthing new information, and debunking many persistent myths. The result is an impeccably researched, breathtaking nonfiction tale of love, car chases, kidnappings, and murder set against the backdrop of the Great Depression.
Karen Blumenthal is a critically acclaimed children’s nonfiction writer and journalist for the Wall Street Journal. She is the author of several nonfiction books for young readers, including Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different, Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History, and Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, among others.
Read by Gabra Zackman, Karen Sepulveda, Keisha Zollar, Fred Berman, Soneela Nankani, Nancy Wu, Emily Woo Zeller, Dara Rosenberg, Erin Moon, Piper Goodeve, Julia Farhat, and Saskia Maarleveld
Reviews
“In this exquisitely researched biography, Blumenthal…[is] careful to explore why the crime-spree duo was, and is, so easily romanticized, without romanticizing them herself. The text is precise, unemotional, and impartial…An extraordinarily successful resource about a painful time in history and a complicated, infamous pair.”
“[Blumenthal’s] meticulous research pins down facts and clarifies what elements amount to mere speculation…Alongside coverage of events are details on the families of Clyde and Bonnie, a focus on their victims, and some insight into the particular lawmen who were trying to capture them. The coverage is thorough and no corners are cut…Highly recommended.”
“Blumenthal has written more than a crime narrative or a biography…The book presents a social and cultural snapshot of the duo’s times”
“Blumenthal makes a determined effort to untangle a mare’s nest of conflicting eyewitness accounts, purple journalism, inaccurate police reports, and self-serving statements from relatives and cohorts of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow…She makes perceptive guesses about what drove them and why they have become iconic figures..Painstaking, judicious, and…with hints of sympathy.”
“Blumenthal’s excellently documented account would be difficult listening were it not for Zackman’s ability to keep some distance between the often gruesome story and listeners…A less accomplished narrator might have reduced this to a recitation of grisly facts, but Zackman keeps the action moving and listeners engaged.”
“A gripping story for readers of all ages…Blumenthal weaves her detailed account of history into a suspenseful tale that reads very much like a novel.”
“Through vivid narrative and meticulous research, Karen Blumenthal takes readers on a wild spree, masterfully capturing the zeitgeist of Depression-era America, when dead-ends and despair could turn teenagers into killers, and killers into legends.”
“Mean, tragic, and glamorous, Bonnie and Clyde live on in legend as depraved dreamers and notorious outlaws-in-love. Blumenthal’s account of their real-life rise and fall is a vivid tale of poverty, violence, and celebrity in Depression-era America.”
“I knew the names Bonnie and Clyde, and that they were famous outlaws—but I was amazed by the twists and turns of their lives on the run. Blumenthal does a fantastic job separating myth from fact, turning romanticized legend into a hard-boiled true crime story.”
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