The Warriors by Sol Yurick

The basis for the cult-classic film.

The night of July 4. Teenage violence runs wild through the streets, exploding with firecrackers and patriotic celebration. In the Bronx, the police move in to break up a citywide convention of gang leaders. Whistles, shots, pounding nightsticks, and suddenly, six members of “the Family” – the Coney Island Dominators – are alone on enemy terrain. Their desperate flight back to their native turf is a journey filled with murder, rape, and subway mayhem that will leave the awestruck reader at a new station of awareness.

An exhilarating novel that examines New York City teenagers, left behind by society, The Warriors is Sol Yurick’s first novel, and it is a triumph of his imagination and skill. What emerges from this night of madness and orgy has a relevance to the large-scale human experience, a relevance far surpassing its immediate front-page topicality.

“It seems to me the best novel of its kind I’ve ever read, an altogether perfect achievement. I’m sure that to many it will sound like sacrilege but I have to say that I think it a better novel than Lord of the Flies.” –Warren Miller, author of The Cool World