James McBride

The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportscoat shoots - for no apparent reason - the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church's baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportscoat's best friend - Hot Sausage - to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. 

Deacon King Kong is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten.

In Tuscany, four US soldiers rescue an Italian boy from the Nazis. They find refuge in a war-torn village. There the boy reveals that something terrible has happened that will affect them all! Some strong language.