Drive Books

Now a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling, this noir novel, “is full of sly humor, poetic details and plenty of rude violence . . . A terrific ride” ( Los Angeles Times ). I drive. That's what I do. All I do. The gritty back streets of Los Angeles are the backdrop for what the New York Times calls “a perfect piece of noir fiction” in which the Driver is double-crossed in a burglary gone horribly wrong. This beautiful new edition introduces a noir classic to a new generation of readers, featuring added materials, including a reading group guide and author Q&A. “Sallis gives us his most tightly written mystery to date, worthy of comparison to the compact, exciting oeuvre of French noir giant Jean-Patrick Manchette.” — Publishers Weekly “ One crisply written, spot-on scene after another . . . [A] hypnotic little story about driving circles around your life.” — Booklist , starred review “[Drive] packs a wallop . . . Sallis injects so much meaning and emotion into his carefully selected words that the power of his prose exceeds its volume...For those who have not yet had to chance to read one of crime fiction's most underappreciated writers, now is the perfect opportunity.” — The Boston Globe “Full throttle . . . Salliss riveting novella reads the way a Tarantino or Soderbergh neo-noir plays . . . Drive is one lean, mean, masterful machine.” — Entertainment Weekly “Imagine the black heart of Jim Thompson beating in the poetic chest of James Sallis and you’ll have some idea of the beauty, sadness, and power of Drive .” — Chicago Tribune

"The perfect piece of noir fiction." ― New York Times Book Review "Terse, brutal, poetic, perfectly wrought." ― Publishers Weekly STARRED review At the end of Drive , Driver has killed Bernie Rose, "the only one he ever mourned," ending his campaign against those who double-crossed him. Driven tells how that young man, done with killing, becomes the one who goes down "at 3 a.m. on a clear, cool morning in a Tijuana bar." Seven years have passed. Driver has left the old life, become Paul West, and founded a successful business back in Phoenix. Walking down the street one day, he and his fiancée are attacked by two men and, while Driver dispatches both, his fiancée is killed. Sinking back into anonymity, aided by his friend Felix, an ex-gangbanger and Desert Storm vet, Driver retreats but finds that his past stalks him and will not stop. He has to turn and face it. Because he drives. That's what he does.