“Outrageously entertaining…. This fast-moving story is a rip-roaring cops-and-robbers saga with a Mitteleuropean heart.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“If all the world loves a romantic thief, the world will fall head over heels for Attila Ambrus, a dashing Hungarian bandit who became known in the 1990s as the Whiskey Robber…. A fast-paced and exquisitely detailed true-crime lark.”
—Outside
“Rubinstein has found a story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious, and always absurd, Ambrus’s tale microcosmically condenses the politico-historic oddities of his place and era into one entertaining and fairly tidy narrative…. With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose, and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Entertaining…. Rubinstein’s account of the Whiskey Robber seems straight out of Hollywood, and indeed it’s ideal for the big screen. It’s got a rogue hero, chase sequences, even romances.”
—Sports Illustrated
“Engrossing…. In Rubinstein’s deft hands, Attila becomes a great tragicomic character…. Rubinstein keeps the high-energy, madcap comedy up throughout the book.”
—Denver Post
“A great crime story is a strange and smudged window to peer through, to get a glimpse of life in a very specific place and time. And Julian Rubinstein has tracked down and written a great crime story. Any novelist making this up would be duly executed. Julian Rubinstein deserves to be read, and Attila Ambrus deserves to be America’s favorite gangster-goalkeeper.”
—Arthur Phillips, author of Prague
“One of the quirkiest and most riveting narratives to come down the Danube…. Here, the bad guys are the gentlemen, the good guys are the bumblers, and nothing is quite what it seems, but that won’t keep you from laughing out loud every couple of pages. Weirdness has never been quite so winning.”
—Elle
“A deadpan true story so improbable and freewheeling that it reads like a tall tale…. Rubinstein’s funny book might just make off with all your free time.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Punchy, hilarious, and apparently even true. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber gives hope to anyone who ever smuggled an animal pelt, climbed aboard a Zamboni, or pondered whether truth can be better than fiction. Mr. Rubinstein has committed a high-wire, bravado act of journalism.”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
“By turns hilarious and incredible, this stuff just can’t be made up.”
—Maxim
“The vivid and riveting story of Attila Ambrus, Transylvanian-born immigrant, outlaw, and gentleman, also hides a key to the still inexplicable and mad passage of communism to capitalism. This is a grand thriller, perhaps the first of a genre.”
—Andrei Codrescu, author of Wakefield
“A wonderful read…. Rubinstein’s treatment of Ambrus is a deft and poignant example of compassion and humor.”
—Sports Illustrated
“Robin Hood tales always entice, yet few are as madcap and captivating as this rollicking portrait of Attila Ambrus, a Transylvanian refugee turned lousy pro-hockey goalie turned legendary Hungarian bank robber and gentleman heartthrob in the waning days of Communist rule. The subtitle of Rubinstein’s book, the product of three years of foreign reporting, underscores how truth is still stranger than fiction…. This is a Hollywood film waiting to be made, a crazy outlaw caper from ‘The Wild, Wild East.’ ”
“Hilarious…. A thrilling and oddly enticing book.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“Must be read to be believed…. Rubinstein surveys the whole tale in grand storytelling fashion, following the action and the chase in entertaining detail…. A heartrending study of a character whose bungling tells the story of a world much bigger than his own.”
—Onion A.V. Club
“Offers that simple pleasure, a great story.”
—Esquire
“An instant classic…. At once sad and funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a rollicking tale of the Wild East, also has a deeply compelling political purpose.”
—Globe and Mail
“An amazing story. Unreal.”
—ESPN’s Cold Pizza (An ESPN Book Club Selection)
“An all-too-real political fairy tale….. Underneath all of the action and intrigue that makes Ballad of the Whiskey Robber nothing short of a page-turner, there’s a subtle commentary on corruption and capitalism…. With such high stakes and the story’s built-in suspense, Rubinstein’s Ballad never borders on a lackluster history lesson, nor does his attention to political injustices ever interrupt the fictionlike flow of Ambrus’s story. Grade: A.”
—Rocky Mountain News
“As outrageous and entertaining as any piece of fiction in recent memory, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a page-turner almost too fantastic to believe and too engrossing to put down.”
“Never was there a more entertaining case history of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Breezy, informative, and wholly enjoyable.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Bittersweet, comic-tragic, sadly funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is Julian Rubinstein’s wonderful saga of Hungarian cops and robbers, where, if crime doesn’t pay, it at least beats playing hockey goalie.”
—Frank Deford
“A rollicking tale told with glee and flair…. Rubinstein has a knack for telling a good story…. He has a rootin’-tootin’ style that’s a perfect fit for this Jesse James–like tale, which has the chance to be a sleeper that transcends nonfiction categories.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“You don’t have to be Hungarian to enjoy Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. It is a funny, moving, edge-of-your-seat true story which beautifully captures the mood and ethos of post–Cold War Budapest. I loved it, and Willie Sutton would have too.”
—Donald Blinken, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary 1994–98
“Julian Rubinstein mixes the tale of Ambrus’s raids with a political history of Hungary that puts these robberies in perspective and explains how an armed robber’s crimes might seem heroic in the face of the massive government corruption that accompanied Hungary’s transition to capitalism…. Rubinstein keeps the pages turning…. He delivers a work of history and entertainment with all of the panache of his subject’s successful raids.”
—Forbes.com (A Forbes Book Club Selection)