{"product_id":"whipping-boy-9780062269492","title":"Whipping Boy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Edgar(R) Award for Best Fact Crime\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe true account of one boy's lifelong search for his boarding-school bully.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEqual parts childhood memoir and literary thriller, \u003cem\u003eWhipping Boy\u003c\/em\u003e chronicles prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil's search for his twelve-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus. The obsessive inquiry, which spans some forty years, takes Kurzweil all over the world, from a Swiss boarding school (where he endures horrifying cruelty) to the slums of Manila, from the Park Avenue boardroom of the world's largest law firm to a federal prison camp in Southern California.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile hunting down his tormentor, Kurzweil encounters an improbable cast of characters that includes an elocution teacher with ill-fitting dentures, a gang of faux royal swindlers, a crime investigator \"with paper in his blood,\" and a onocled grand master of the Knights of Malta. Yet for all its global exoticism and comic exuberance, Kurzweil's riveting account is, at its core, a heartfelt and suspenseful narrative about the \"parallel lives\" of a victim and his abuser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA scrupulously researched work of nonfiction that renders a childhood menace into an unlikely muse, \u003cem\u003eWhipping Boy\u003c\/em\u003e is much more than a tale of karmic retribution; it is a poignant meditation on loss, memory, and mourning, a surreal odyssey born out of suffering, nourished by rancor, tempered by wit, and resolved, unexpectedly, in a breathtaking act of personal courage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhipping Boy\u003c\/em\u003e features two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and 83 images throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKurzweil, Allen:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eAllen Kurzweil is a prize-winning novelist, children's writer, inventor, and journalist. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSmithsonian\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/em\u003e. He is a graduate of Yale University and the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Paperbacks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844010381586,"sku":"9780062269492","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4327eba7-1926-4777-bcf8-830ca4b75238.jpg?v=1737306830","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/whipping-boy-9780062269492","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}