Alligator Candy - by David Kushner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From award-winning journalist David Kushner, a reported memoir about family, survival, and the unwavering power of love--and the basis for the podcast Alligator Candy.David Kushner grew up in the early 1970s in the Florida suburbs. It was when kids still ran free, riding bikes and disappearing into the nearby woods for hours at a time. One morning in 1973, however, everything changed. David's older brother Jon biked through the forest to the convenience store for candy, and never returned. Every life has a defining moment, a single act that charts the course we take and determines who we become. For Kushner, it was Jon's disappearance--a tragedy that shocked his family and the community at large. Decades later, now a grown man with kids of his own, Kushner found himself unsatisfied with his own memories and decided to revisit the episode a different way: through the eyes of a reporter. His investigation brought him back to the places and people he once knew and slowly made him realize just how much his past had affected his present. After sifting through hundreds of documents and reports, conducting dozens of interviews, and poring over numerous firsthand accounts, he has produced a powerful and inspiring story of loss, perseverance, and memory. Alligator Candy is searing and unforgettable.

Review Quotes

"A raw story about courage, survival and most certainly about love." -Tampa Bay Times

About the Author

David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. His books include Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture; Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb; and Alligator Candy: A Memoir. He has written for Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Outside, and other publications. His work has been adapted into award-winning films (Zola and Silk Road), podcasts (Alligator Candy and Cold Truth), and docuseries (The Battle for Justina Pelletier). He is the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and lives in New Jersey.