THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OPRAH`S BOOK CLUB PICK `Deacon King Kong is deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane, McBride`s ability to inhabit his characters` foibled, all-too-human interiority helps transform a fine book into a great one` The New York Times Book Review `A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year`s best novels.` The Washington Post From the winner of a National Book Award and author of The Good Lord Bird, soon to be a TV series starring Ethan Hawke The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots - for no apparent reason - the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church`s baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat`s best friend - Hot Sausage - to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. DEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital.