{"product_id":"9780062269508","title":"Whipping Boy","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Edgar® Award for Best Fact Crime\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe true account of one boy’s lifelong search for his boarding-school bully.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEqual parts childhood memoir and literary thriller, Whipping Boy chronicles prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil’s search for his twelve-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus. The obsessive inquiry, which spans some forty years, takes Kurzweil all over the world, from a Swiss boarding school (where he endures horrifying cruelty) to the slums of Manila, from the Park Avenue boardroom of the world’s largest law firm to a federal prison camp in Southern California.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile hunting down his tormentor, Kurzweil encounters an improbable cast of characters that includes an elocution teacher with ill-fitting dentures, a gang of faux royal swindlers, a crime investigator “with paper in his blood,” and a  onocled grand master of the Knights of Malta. Yet for all its global exoticism and comic exuberance, Kurzweil’s riveting account is, at its core, a heartfelt and suspenseful narrative about the “parallel lives” of a victim and his abuser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA scrupulously researched work of nonfiction that renders a childhood menace into an unlikely muse, Whipping Boy is much more than a tale of karmic retribution; it is a poignant meditation on loss, memory, and mourning, a surreal odyssey born out of suffering, nourished by rancor, tempered by wit, and resolved, unexpectedly, in a breathtaking act of personal courage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhipping Boy features two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and  83 images throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow does a childhood grudge ignite a forty-year international investigation?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Forty-Year Obsession:\u003c\/b\u003e Prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil's decades-long hunt for Cesar Augustus, the boy who tormented him at a Swiss boarding school, becomes a gripping international odyssey.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eInvestigative Journalism Meets Literary Memoir:\u003c\/b\u003e Follow a meticulously researched true story that takes you from the peaks of the Swiss Alps to the slums of Manila, and from the boardroom of a top law firm to the gates of a federal prison.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Bizarre World of Con Men:\u003c\/b\u003e Uncover an improbable cast of characters, including faux royal swindlers, a monocled grand master, and the shocking truth of what the author's childhood nemesis became as an adult.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eEdgar Award-Winning True Crime:\u003c\/b\u003e Discover the riveting, heartfelt, and suspenseful Edgar Award winner for Best Fact Crime, a poignant exploration of memory, loss, and the nature of justice.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Allen Kurzweil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46908344270997,"sku":"9780062269508","price":9.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780062269508.jpg?v=1776890111","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780062269508","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}