NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK CHOSEN BY BARACK OBAMA AS A FAVOURITE READ TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR, NEW YORK TIMES & WASHINGTON POST’Brilliantly imagined, larger than life, a tragicomedic epic of intertwined lives.’ JOYCE CAROL OATES’Deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane.’ JUNOT DIAZ, New York Times Book ReviewThe year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat 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 Sportcoat’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. It is very funny in p