After getting arrested for petty burglary as a teenager, Braly couldn t get a break and spent much of his life behind bars. This is his searing autobiography, from the author of Shake Him Till He Rattles and On the Yard.

False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin and Other Prisons

Biographies & Memoirs

Rick Ollerman

Braly, Malcolm

Memoirs

Penguin??Books

A major American novel, and arguably the finest work of literature ever to emerge from a US prison, On the Yard is a book of penetrating psychological realism in which Malcolm Braly paints an unforgettable picture of the complex and frightening world of the penitentiary. At its center are the violently intertwined stories of Chilly Willy, in trouble with the law from his earliest years and now the head of the prison's flourishing black market in drugs and sex, and of Paul, wracked with guilt for the murder of his wife and desperate for some kind of redemption. At once brutal and tender, clear-eyed and rueful, On the Yard presents the penitentiary not as an exotic location, an exception to everyday reality, but as an ordinary place, one every reader will recognize, American to the core.

On the Yard: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

After getting arrested for petty burglary as a teenager, Braly couldn t get a break and spent much of his life behind bars. This is his searing autobiography, from the author of Shake Him Till He Rattles and On the Yard.

False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin & Other Prisons

Little,Brown

SHAKE HIM TILL HE RATTLES North Beach, San Francisco: It is the early 1960's and the beat scene is changing. The Narco Squad are coming down heavy. One particular narc, Lieutenant Carver, really has it in for Lee Cabiness. All Cabiness wants to do is jam on his sax, score some weed and hang with the action. He had a thing going with Jean but that's cooled off, and now she's going with that flashy pimp, Randozza. One night Cabiness's friend Furg introduces him to Clair Hubler, a slumming rich girl who wants to hire them for a private party. She's got an anti-guy vibe but you never know. But all Furg wants to do is score some junk to find out what all the excitement's about. Naturally he thinks of Sullivan, the local junkie playwright. But Sullivan has a problem—Carver is using him to set up his friends. One summer in North Beach, they all collide. That's when things get crazy, real crazy. IT'S COLD OUT THERE JD Bing is out from San Quentin, just trying to get by selling encyclopedias—but he's not very good at it. In fact, he's getting desperate. Kristie has just lost her airline job and is holding herself together so tight she's beginning to lose touch with reality. Grove is a quiet young man who gets by selling clever little cartoons to the papers, trying to work up his nerve to ask out Kristie. When Bing comes around their apartment building in a last ditch attempt to sell, their lives are forever changed. Because Bing has entered a world of backstabbing winos, lonely check-kiting old men, cocktail waitressing divorcees, bullying counterfeiters, impotent ex-generals and crazy street people. It's a California underground--life on the fringes. And as Bing soon finds out, he was safer in prison.

Shake Him Till He Rattles / It's Cold Out There

Contemporary

Stark House Press

Doug is only seventeen when he hits town. He’s been on the run for awhile, and thinks he’s got it all figured out. But when he’s caught robbing a store, he finds that nothing has prepared him for the felony tank. Lying about his age, he is jailed with the adults, and here he meets Carl, the aging lifer with a steady supply of candy bars; Armando, who cuts first and talks later; Pesco, the big wheel from California; and Billy and his friend Agnes, two small-time hoods with big plans for escape…

Felony Tank (Black Gat Books)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Malcolm Braly spent the better part of his life behind bars. Arrested for a botched teenage burglary, he made one mistake after another, always returning to the institution that turned a sensitive young man into a hardened con. This is his story, an indictment of both his own failings and those of a system that seeks to reform those weaknesses, but instead only reinforces them. From foster child to delinquent to armed robber to escaped convict, we follow Braly as he chases after his freedom—continually confronted by his own self-destructive actions—before turning to the outlet of writing that allowed him to succeed.

True Crime

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Braly, Malcolm. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Braly, Malcolm

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Braly, Malcolm. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin and Other Prisons

On the Yard: A Novel

False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin & Other Prisons

Shake Him Till He Rattles / It's Cold Out There

Felony Tank (Black Gat Books)

False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin & Other Prisons