The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival

On January 21, 1998, the night before his thirty-eighth birthday, federal prosecutor Stanley N. Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan by a car full of gun-toting thugs looking to use his ATM card. He ended up blindfolded in a Brooklyn apartment as his captors changed their plans, alternately threatening him and his family, seeking legal advice, expounding on the "gangsta" life, and offering him the services of their prostitute girlfriends as a birthday present. All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, talked with them, played on their attitudes and fears, and memorized every detail he could in the event that he ever managed to get out of there alive.

Filled with immediacy, drama, and extraordinary characters, The Birthday Party reads like a thriller-but every word is true.

Author: Stanley N. Alpert
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 01/02/2008
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.58w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780425219119

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 01/27/2008 pg. 20

About the Author
Stanley N. Alpert served for thirteen years with the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he was chief of environmental litigation. There, Alpert investigated, prosecuted, or supervised many complex civil and criminal cases, some resulting in multimillion-dollar awards.