1
of
1
The Executioner's Song
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 22,947 ratings, 1,725 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3500
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Executioner's Song
$3500
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW O'HAGAN
In the summer of 1976 Gary Gilmore robbed two men.
If you were enthralled by Capote's In Cold Blood, read The Executioner's Song
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
The Executioner's Song is a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of murderer Gary Gilmore's desire to die. In the summer of 1976, Gilmore robbed two men and then shot them in cold blood.
No one had been executed in America for ten years, but Gilmore, rather than have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, wanted to die. His ensuing battle with the authorities for the right to do so made him a worldwide celebrity and ensured that his execution turned into a gruesome media event.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer is lauded as a masterful blend of reportage and fiction, with some considering it Mailer's greatest work. Critics praise it for its unsettling exploration of moral questions, power, and human complexity, delivering a compelling and detailed narrative of Gary Gilmore's life and crimes. The book is often described as evocative, wise, and profoundly engaging.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099688600
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 06 July 1989
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 47.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 702g
Pages: 1088
About the Author
Norman Mailer was born in New Jersey in January 1923 and after graduating from Harvard, served in the US army from 1944-1946. His first novel, The Naked and the Dead, was published to immediate critical acclaim in 1948 - and was hailed by Anthony Burgess as 'the best war novel to emerge from the United States'. He went on to publish both fiction and non-fiction, his books including Barbary Shore (1951), Advertisements for Myself (1959), The Presidential Papers (1963), An American Dream (1964), Armies of the Night (1968), Ancient Evenings (1983), and Tough Guys Don't Dance (1983). The Executioner's Song, first published in 1979, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 - an award which Mailer won twice during his writing career. Norman Mailer died in November 2007.
Also by Norman Mailer
View all-
The Fight
From the visionary mind of one of New Journalism's pioneering figures, Norman Mailer, The Fight provides an unfiltered, riveting account of the 1974 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship held in Kinshasa, Zaire. This historic bout brought together two of the most formidable boxers on the planet - Muhammad Ali and George Foreman - who clashed not just with their fists, but...Paperback$2600Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips early August -
The Armies of the Night
Mailer's classic account of the 1967 anti-Vietnam War rally in Washington D.C., and one of the best 'nonfiction novels' ever written. October 21, 1967, Washington, D.C. 20,000 to 200,000 protesters are marching to end the war in Vietnam, while helicopters hover overhead and federal marshals and soldiers with fixed bayonets await them on the Pentagon steps. Among the marchers is...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Naked and the Dead
One of the finest American novels ever written, Norman Mailer's classic account of the Philippines campaign of WW2. Based on Mailer's own experience of military service in the Philippines during World War Two, The Naked and the Dead is a graphically truthful and shattering portrayal of ordinary men in battle. First published in 1949, as America was still basking in...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Norman Mailer. Neil Leifer. Howard L. Bingham. The Fight
On October 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, at the virtual centre of Africa, two boxers were paid five million dollars apiece to confront each other in an epic match. One was Muhammad Ali, who vowed to reclaim the championship he had lost. The other was George Foreman, who was as taciturn as Ali was voluble and who kept his hands...Hardback$23500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
An American Dream
One of the best American novels ever written - a rollicking, controversial New York fable. As Stephen Rojack, a decorated war hero and former congressman who murders his wife in a fashionable New York City high-rise, runs amok through the city in which he was once a privileged citizen, Mailer peels away the layers of our social norms to reveal...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Norman Mailer
This book is really two books. It is a biography, and it is also a pictorial retrospective of an actress whose greatest love affair was conceivably with the camera, wrote Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography, Marilyn. TASCHEN has paired Mailer's original text with Bert Stern's photographs from the legendary Last Sittingโwidely considered the most intimate photographs of Monroe ever...Hardback$23500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Advertisements for Myself
An essential guide to the life and work of one of America's most controversial writers. Advertisements for Myself is a comprehensive collection of the best of Norman Mailer's essays, stories, interviews, and journalism from the Forties and Fifties, linked by anarchic and riotous autobiographical commentary. Laying bare the heart of a witty, belligerent, and vigorous writer, this manifesto of Mailer's...PaperbackSold Out -
A Fire on the Moon
Mailer's superb account, written as it was happening, of the first attempt to land men on the moon. 'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.' A Fire on the Moon tells the scarcely credible story of the Apollo 11 mission. It is suffused with Mailer's obsession both with the astronauts themselves and with his own anxieties and terrors about...PaperbackSold Out
More from General Fiction
View all-
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people โ but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Theo of Golden
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came fromโฆHis name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance โ...Paperback$2899Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseOn Mystic Lake
One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release
Land
Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, theย new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomรกs and his reluctant son,ย Liam, are working for the great...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set
The Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson is a landmark fantasy series that has captivated readers worldwide. Renowned for its innovative magic system, intricate world-building, and compelling characters, this trilogy is a must-have for any fantasy enthusiast. Immerse yourself in a world shrouded in ash, where a once-hopeful land is ruled by the tyrannical Dark Lord, known as the...Set$6800Elsewhere:$7500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseYesteryear
A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE โ Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE โ Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE โ Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS โ Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale โ Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed BookplateNew ReleaseLight Wielder
THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO METAL SLINGER, AKA THE BOOK WITH THE PLOT TWIST THAT BROKE THE INTERNET Sail the seas. Master the blade. Protect your heart. What would you do to have it all? READERS ARE GOING WILD FOR *METAL SLINGER* โThe BEST plot twist to ever grace my Kindleโ โญโญโญโญโญ โThe author is a mastermind. Romantasy is back!!!!โ โญโญโญโญโญ...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Deal
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Deal now for the perfect fake-dating romance! She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy . . . Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Project Hail Mary
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL A BARACK OBAMA READING PICK A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. 'The most enjoyable hard SF I have read in years' GUARDIAN 'Weir's finest work to date... This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know...Paperback$2099Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Goal
Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
There Is No Antimemetics Division
Mind-bending science fiction about antimemes: ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign, but others, less so... These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you youโand you'll never even know anything changed. And they aren't just feeding on us. They're...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
General Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 Most Recommended Books
These are my Top 10 books that I always recommend to my friends and whฤnau when they ask for recommendations for getting...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readersโ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list
