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Arts & Entertainment

Jonathan Eig to Speak at Darien Library

On Sunday, May 2 at 5:30 p.m., Jonathan Eig, author of "Get Capone: The Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster," will be the featured speaker at Darien Library.

"Get Capone," which comes out on Tuesday, April 27, is an engrossing biography packed with booze, bullets, and blood. This is American history at its most riveting, written by New York Times best-selling and critically-acclaimed author Jonathan Eig ("Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig" and "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season"). Part biography and part detective story, "Get Capone" shatters many of the myths surrounding the man referred to as "Scarface." Drawing on newly discovered wiretaps, memos, IRS documents, prison records, and personal letters of Al Capone, the book explores how America's "Public Enemy No. 1" was caught not by Elliot Ness and his "Untouchables" but by government attorneys and accountants operating on direct orders from President Herbert Hoover. Eig explains how Capone, a son of Italian immigrants, rose from small-time thuggery in Brooklyn to become one of the world's first international celebrities and America's most ruthless and successful gangster.  

"In a page-turning account, Eig details the chase for the elusive Capone, dissecting both the man and his myth." Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

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"…Eig's riveting telling of this iconic American Story is both fresh and utterly dazzling." – Ken Burns, filmmaker

A book signing will follow the presentation. Books will be available for purchase.

Find out what's happening in Darienwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jonathan Eig's appearance is part of Darien Library's Spring Author Series. In the coming weeks, the Library's Spring Author Series will also feature:

Thursday, May 13 at 7 p.m. – T. J. Stiles, author of "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt," the recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography. (T. J. Stiles' appearance is jointly funded by the Friends of the Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore.)

Sunday, June 6 at 5:30 p.m. – Lee Child, author of "61 Hours"

Darien Library is located at 1441 Post Road, Darien, Conn.

For more information, visit darienlibrary.org or call 203-655-1234.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

(images attached: Headshot of Jonathan Eig; cover of "Get Capone")

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