Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

Awards:

Winner, Borders 2005 “Original Voices” Nonfiction Book of the Year

Finalist, 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Fact Crime

Finalist, 2005 Anthony Award, Best Non-fiction Book

Finalist, 2007 Audie Award, Best Audio Book

National Geographic “Best 5 Books about Budapest”

Film rights purchased by Johnnie Depp

Reviews

“A story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus’s tale microcosmically condenses the politico-historic oddities of his place and era into one entertaining and tidy narrative… With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker.”

—New York Times Sunday Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“An instant classic…. At once sad and funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a rollicking tale of the Wild East, also has a deeply compelling political purpose.”

Canada’s Globe and Mail (A Best Book of the Year pick)

“Outrageously entertaining… An essential absurdism is never far from the surface… This fast-moving story is a rip-roaring cops and robbers saga with a Mitteleuropean heart.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“One of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Ever. In fact it’s one of the best non-fiction books I will ever read. It’s that good.”

Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick

“Marvelous. This book will stand as a vivid memento of modern Budapest’s formative years.”

—The Budapest Times

“If all the world loves a romantic thief, the world will fall head over heels for Attila Ambrus. Fast paced and exquisitely detailed.”

—Outside

“Rubinstein has a knack for vividly portraying his stranger-than-fiction characters… By turns hilarious and incredible, this stuff just can’t be made up.”

—Maxim (5 out of 5 stars.)

“Offers that simple pleasure, a great story.”

—Esquire

“Its hard to imagine what journalist Julian Rubinstein thought when he stumbled across the twisted tale of Attila Ambrus, but his fascination finds riveting realization in Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a nonfiction account of a story that must be read to be believed… Set against a rich backdrop of hope and despair, the book is a heartrending study of a character whose bungling tells the story of a world much bigger than his own.”

—The Onion, AV Club

“A whiz-bang read, hilarious and oddly touching… Rubinstein writes in a guns-ablazing style that perfectly fits the Whiskey Robber’s tale.”

—Salon.com

“Julian Rubinstein has found what every writer craves: a larger-than-life character whose adventures veer from rollicking to comical to heartbreaking… Ambrus’s arc and all of its attendant absurdity tends to parallel that of Eastern Europe itself: the desperation, the sense of opportunity after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Wild West euphoria, the deep-seated corruption, and finally, the brutal hangover after the long bender. Studs Terkel eat your heart out.”

—Boldtype

“The antagonistic protagonist of Julian Rubinstein’s picaresque romp is a real person who defies belief… Rubinstein rides the momentum in appropriately riotous fashion, but he wisely never lets his vivid style overshadow a tale that burns up the pages on its own momentum. Nor does he succumb to sentimentality when exploring the tale’s pathos—and believe it or not, there’s as much of that as there is burlesque. A memorable tragicomedy.”

—Boston Globe

“Rubinstein’s chronicle is performance art, a madcap joyride alongside one of the most endearing figures in the annals of bad behavior.”

—Men’s Journal

“Truth is still stranger than fiction… This is a Hollywood film waiting to be made, a crazy outlaw caper from “The Wild, Wild East.”

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A beautifully crafted tale… In Rubinstein’s deft hands, Attila becomes a great tragicomic character.”

—Denver Post (Best Books of the Year Pick)

“As outrageous and entertaining as any piece of fiction in recent memory, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a page-turner almost too fantastic to believe and too engrossing to put down.”

—Columbus Dispatch

“Arguably this is the best piece of serious literature ever written tackling the Hungarian experience in the 1990s… One of Julian Rubinstein’s best virtues is a sincere interest in, and sympathy toward, csorikaim, the little people, prone to fail, the losers. In Hungarian non-fiction, no examples of such curiosity and empathy have emerged since Gyorgy Moldova’s heyday… Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is one book in a thousand.”

Elet es Irodalom (Hungary’s leading literary publication)

“Rubinstein has succeeded in carving out a crime niche all his own.”

—Toronto Star

“A wonderful read. Rubinstein’s account of the Whiskey Robber seems straight out of Hollywood and ineed it’s ideal for the big screen. It’s got a rogue hero, chase sequences, even those romances. Best of all for potential producers, the actor cast as Ambrus would barely need to know how to play hockey.”

—Sports Illustrated

“Here, the bad guys are the gentlemen, the good guys are the bumblers, and nothing is quite what it seems, but that won’t keep you from laughing out loud every couple of pages. Weirdness has never been quite so winning.”

—ELLE

“Julian Rubinstein’s richly enjoyable true-crime saga… Mr. Rubinstein narrates all these farcical goings-on with a sad affection peeking through, even for the dumbest and most corrupt characters. But primarily he maintains that marvelously sardonic Eastern European resignation, that ironic tone of voice that always seems to shrug and say, ‘So what did you expect?’”

—Dallas Morning News

“Grade: A. An all-too real political fairy tale… Underneath all of the action and intrigue that makes Ballad nothing short of a page-turner, there’s a subtle commentary on corruption and capitalism… With such high stakes and the story’s built-in suspense, Rubinstein’s Ballad never borders on a lackluster history lesson, nor does his attention to political injustices ever interrupt the fiction-like flow of Ambrus’s story. Though being resigned to a life of quiet desperation was Ambrus’s greatest fear, Ballad is proof that the Whiskey Robber will remain anything but irrelevant.”

—Rocky Mountain News

“Never was there a more entertaining case history of the fall of communism… Wholly enjoyable.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Hilarious.”

—Playboy

“Masterful… A quirky, engrossing look at the chaos of post-Cold War Hungary and the growing pains of capitalism. It is a wild ride with over-the-top gangsters, pelt smugglers and cops.”

—Newark Star-Ledger

“The pace, ingenuity and comical sense of the absurd deployed to tell the story of ice hockey player and bank robber Attila Ambrus makes this book read like a novel. But Attila Ambrus is real… His extraordinary story is told here with a hint of Louis de Bernieres and a lot of panache.”

—Daily Mail (UK)

“A book that reads like some fantastic crime novel, chronicling the very real actions of an extraordinary man trying to survive and make a lasting name for himself in transitionary times… Ballad is a rollicking crime story, a commentary on the effects of the fall of communism on the former Eastern Bloc, and a beautiful portrait of historic Budapest.”

—Small Spiral Notebook

“A ripper of a crime story and it’s one that can stand next to any of history’s great outlaw tales… The reporting is exhaustive, the pace is fast, and the main character is as bizarre as any you’re going to meet. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a fabulous read.”

—Edmonton Journal

“Rubinstein’s eye for whimsical detail imbues his deftly sketched cops-and-robbers saga with a rich palpability. And he keeps the story tight and lively, despite its plot twists and complex cast of characters… One heck of a good story.”

—BlackBook

“Readers who normally shun nonfiction will embrace the story for the marvelous storytelling and terrific characters… In short, Rubinstein is a terrific storyteller.”

—Boulder Daily Camera

“A madcap joyride… Rubinstein has written a great crime story.”

—5280 Denver’s Magazine

“A terrific first effort by Rubinstein… Readers will find themselves trying to figure out who should play the Whiskey Robber on the big screen.”

—Library Journal

“This is a funny, moving, edge-of-your seat true story that beautifully captures the mood and ethos of post-Cold War Budapest. I loved it and Willie Sutton would have too.”

—Donald Blinken, US Ambassador to Hungary, 1994-98

“The vivid and riveting story of Attila Ambrus, Transylvanian-born immigrant, outlaw and gentleman, also provides a key to the still inexplicable and mad passage of communism to capitalism… This is a grand thriller, perhaps the first of a genre.”

—Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author

“Punchy, hilarious and apparently even true, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber gives hope to anyone who ever smuggled an animal pelt, climbed aboard a Zamboni or pondered whether truth can be better than fiction. Mr. Rubinstein has committed a high-wire, bravado act of journalism.”

—Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook

“Funny, heart-breaking, gripping, incredible and it implies volumes more: the distillation of a people or an era, or the failings and promise of money, freedom, fame. Any novelist making this up would be duly executed.”

Arthur Phillips, author, most recently, of The Tragedy of Arthur

“Attila Ambrus is one of the funniest and most phoenix-like characters to agitate for our attention in quite some time. Julian Rubinstein tells Ambrus’s flipped-out tale with real verve and sympathy.”

—Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng, and others

“Bittersweet, comic-tragic, sadly funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is Julian Rubisntein’s wonderful saga of Hungarian cops and robbers, where, if crime doesn’t pay, it at least beats playing hockey goalie.”

—Frank Deford, author and NPR commentator

Rubinstein is “one of America’s best… The chance to glimpse into the world of an artist with such deep range is certainly undiluted manna.”

­—Sante Fe Reporter

“An instant classic.”
—Globe Mail (Canada)

“Outrageously entertaining.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Rubinstein has found a story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus’s tale microcomsically condenses the politico-historic oddities into one entertaining and fairly tidy narrative. With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker.”
—New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Punchy, hilarious, and apparently even true … truth can be better than fiction.”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutant

“(A) punchy, preposterous tale of a cut-price Sundance Kid of the Eastern bloc … Rubinstein relishes every misstep taken by his anti-hero on the way to a long sentence.”
—The Times

“Those who shy away from the “true crime” section of the bookshop … may nevertheless like to try Ballad of the Whiskey Robber … I particularly enjoyed Rubinstein’s descriptions of the hapless cops … funny … the book is entirely free of schmaltz, which allows some unexpectedly tender moments.”
—Daily Telegraph

“A funny and thrilling slice of modern history, told with all the charm of Butch and Sundance’s flamboyant escapades.”
—Independent

“An extraordinary story … told here with a hint of Louis de Bernieres and a lot of panache.”
—Daily Mail

“An hilarious, absurd parable for our times.”
—Word

“A true caper of burglaries and broken hearts in the Eastern bloc.”
—Wanderlust

“This stuff just can’t be made up.”
—Maxim

“One of the quirkiest and most riveting narratives. Weirdness has never been so winning.”
—Elle

“[The book] got fantastic reviews in the US on publication … I am sure it will have a similar success here.”
—Bookseller

“A fast-paced and exquisitely detailed true-crime lark.”
—Outside

“Fabulous stuff.”
—The Times, Ross Leckie

“Offers that simple pleasure, a great story.”
—Esquire

“This is a grand thriller, perhaps the first of a genre.”
—Andrei Codrescu, NPR