Last Exit to Brooklyn

"An extraordinary achievement . . . a vision of hell so stern it cannot be chuckled or raged aside."—The New York Times Book Review

The first novel to articulate the rage and pain of life in "the other America," Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn is a classic of postwar American writing. Selby's searing portrait of the powerless, the homeless, the dispossessed, is as fiercely and frighteningly apposite today as it was when it was first published more than fifty years ago. This explosive, transgressive best-seller created shock waves upon its release in 1964 with its raw, vibrant language and startling revelations of New York City's underbelly.

Few novels have caused as much debate as Selby's notorious masterpiece, which was even subject to an obscenity trial in the United Kingdom and banned in Italy due to its raw exploration of many societal taboos. The prostitutes, drunks, addicts, hoodlums, thieves, and johns of Selby's Brooklyn are fierce and lonely creatures, desperately searching for a moment of transcendence amidst the decay and brutality of the waterfront — though none have any real hope of escape. Last Exit to Brooklyn offers a disturbing yet hauntingly sensitive portrayal of American life, confronting the worst excesses of human nature, and nearly fifty years after publication, stands as a crucial and masterful work of modern fiction.

This audiobook is masterfully read by William DeMeritt, and was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. Audio engineering by Mike Thal.

© 2025 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC (Audiobook): 9798349129322

Release date

Audiobook: 19 November 2025