Owning Up

"Pelecanos. . . has continued to produce first-rate crime novels. . . Now, in "Owning Up," he presents four novellas that trace the consequences of a random event or single bad choice in the life stories of everyday people. . . Although each tale is short, averaging 56 pages, they are sweeping, tracing the consequences of these events over a lifetime... The book is distinguished by well-drawn characters, elegant prose and thoughtful insights about human nature." 

Praise for the novels of George Pelecanos

"Like his hero Elmore Leonard, Pelecanos finds the humanity in the lowest of lowlifes. . . . Pelecanos' peppery dialogue energizes every page."

“If I were in jail, George Pelecanos would be on my reading list, right up there with James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard. . . . Pelecanos's characters [are] so human and so doomed. This is an author who writes with the steady hand of a man who knows he's driving a cool set of wheels and respects his own mechanical skills."

"Every time I read one of George Pelecanos's novels, I'm left a little awed...The guy's a national treasure."

"Using his customary knowing dialogue and stripped-down, soulful prose, Pelecanos skillfully, sensitively works the urban frontier where the problems and stresses of everyday life cross the line into the sort of criminal behavior that could tempt anyone-anyone at all."

"Here we see what makes Pelecanos' best writing so resonant: the sense of longing, of miscommunication, the way love does not enlarge us but rather makes us small."

“The writing is taut, the violence is graphic and the characters are so well-drawn that they step off the page and into your life. . . As good as it gets."