Button Man

New York Times bestselling author Andrew Gross delivers a compelling, unforgettable tale of a Jewish family torn apart by the birth of organized crime.

New York, 1930s. Morris, Sol, and Harry Rabishevsky grew up poor and rough on the Lower East Side, until the death of their father forced them to fend for themselves and support the family. Morris, the youngest yet most driven of the brothers, apprentices himself to a garment manufacturer; bookish Sol drops out of accounting school; and Harry, always the tough one, believes he can help out by learning the ways and means of a charismatic local crime figure. Later, when Morris and Sol find career success and decide to create their own business, Harry can’t be lured away from the glamour and prestige that comes from being a “button man”—a gun man—for Louis Buchalter, now the most ruthless mobster in the city. When Buchalter sets his sights on the unions that control the garment factories, a fatal showdown becomes inevitable, pitting brother against brother.

“Outstanding and engrossing.”—Associated Press

“Big, heartfelt…with all the street-scrambling energy that distinguishes the best fiction of Jeffrey Archer and Mario Puzo.”—USA Today