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
Backorder
STOCK ARRIVING EARLY SEPTEMBER
Order now to secure your copy from our next shipment
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?
Latest News
Win a Fatherβs Day Gift Box with Penguin!
Buy any Penguin Father's Day pick and you're in the draw to win a this...
5 Kiwi Children's Authors to Check Out
Lizzy is sharing 5 Kiwi authors who write amazing children's books - everything from picture...
The Books That Made Us Readers
The book hero team are sharing the books that made them readers!
The Making of an Accounts Hero
From childhood loans and dishwasher money to tax returns, Excel and Book Heroβs accounts, Marnie...
Play to Screen Report 13/08/26
From major casting rumours and long-awaited adaptations to new family favourites heading to the big...
See more
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-
Buy to WinThe 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 /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinThe 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 today -
Buy to Win
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 today -
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 -
Buy to Win
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 today -
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 Sittingβwidely 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 β but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinDungeon Crawler Carl
The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Pre-orderBig Little Truths
Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableOut 25 Aug 2026Pre-order -
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...Set$12400Elsewhere:$15500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragonsβ¦ Raeveβs thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor β a staunch beacon from a past sheβs yet to face. With Rekkβs blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...Hardback$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
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 today -
14% off
Red Rising
The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...Paperback$1900Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to Win17% offProject 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$2000Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Crescent City Paperback Box Set
A beautiful box set containing all three paperback instalments of the Crescent City series from #1 bestselling global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas. BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James β Telegraph Spiced...Set$5499Elsewhere:$7000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinCarl's Doomsday Scenario
Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...Hardback$4699Elsewhere:$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
17% off
Golden Son
ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Score
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 Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
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 100,000 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 whΔnau 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
Readersβ 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
