Jimmy Lerner

Lerner's white-collar Everyman perspective may force readers to truly see the cruel inequities of our current system . . . hard to put down, even harder to forget.

A magnetic memoir and a compelling addition to the contemporary reporting of life in the American penal system and one man's place in it.

A considerable achievement . . . Forthrightly pulls back the curtain on a brutal system of punitive penal warehousing.

A grim and vivid account of life inside the unnamed dehumanising Nevada jail which was Lerner's home between 1998 and 2002, and the events leading up to his imprisonment there . . . A Hardyesque tale of spiralling inevitability towards disaster . . . The mix of characters is extraordinarily rich.

He tells his tale, leading up to why he committed murder in the first place, with extraordinary humour, a raw tension and an ear for dialogue straight from God.

'Compelling and often screamingly funny...If you enjoyed The Shawshank Redemption, you will enjoy this even more'

'One of the most compelling true reads you'll ever pick up...Painfully frank, genuinely funny...One read and you'll stay out of trouble for a very, very long time'

'Lerner deftly juxtaposes his cubicle life with his prison cell life to create a kind of black comedy, giving his story both pathos and charm'

If you've never been slammed, this vic (and fish) Jimmy Lerner will pull your coat. If you have been slammed, he'll remind you of things you've forgotten - and make you laugh. Check it out!

Eddie Bunkler, author of STRAIGHT TIME and NO BEAST SO FIERCE (and 'Mr Black' in RESERVOIR DOGS)

A terrific writer who has produced an unforgettable memoir

You are convicts. Your job here is to lie, cheat, steal, extort, get tattoos, take drugs, sell drugs, shank and sock each other. Just don't let us catch you - that's our job. We catch you, you got nothin' coming. 
 
It is your worst nightmare. You wake up naked in an eight-by-ten-foot steel cell designated 'Suicide Watch #3'. The cell is real. Jimmy Lerner, former family man and corporate strategic planner, has become a prison 'fish', or green new arrival. Taken to a penitentiary in the Nevada desert to serve a twelve-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, this previously nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn ends up sharing a claustrophobic cell with Kansas, a hugely muscled skinhead with a swastika tattooed on his neck and a serious set of issues. 
 
You Got Nothing Coming takes us into a corrupt world powered by violence, drugs, rape, fear and racial hatred. With brash, dark humour Jimmy Lerner tells us how the techniques learnt in management seminars have helped him survive in this hostile environment, and how a lethal act of self-defence landed him in this circle of American prison hell in the first place. Bracingly cynical and perceptive, this terrifying story is all truth.

Jimmy Lerner

Praise for You Got Nothing Coming

Lerner's white-collar Everyman perspective may force readers to truly see the cruel inequities of our current system . . . hard to put down, even harder to forget.

A magnetic memoir and a compelling addition to the contemporary reporting of life in the American penal system and one man's place in it.

A considerable achievement . . . Forthrightly pulls back the curtain on a brutal system of punitive penal warehousing.

Lerner's white-collar Everyman perspective may force readers to truly see the cruel inequities of our current system . . . hard to put down, even harder to forget.

A magnetic memoir and a compelling addition to the contemporary reporting of life in the American penal system and one man's place in it.

A considerable achievement . . . Forthrightly pulls back the curtain on a brutal system of punitive penal warehousing.

Lerner's white-collar Everyman perspective may force readers to truly see the cruel inequities of our current system . . . hard to put down, even harder to forget.

A magnetic memoir and a compelling addition to the contemporary reporting of life in the American penal system and one man's place in it.

A considerable achievement . . . Forthrightly pulls back the curtain on a brutal system of punitive penal warehousing.

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