Essential Bukowski

'The best poet in America' Jean Genet

'He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels' Leonard Cohen

The definitive collection from a writer whose transgressive legacy and raw, funny, acutely observant writing has left an enduring mark

Here is Bukowski eating walnuts and scratching his back, rolling a cigarette while listening to Brahms, showering with Linda in the mid-afternoon.

Here is Bukowski knowing that the secret is beyond him, that people who never go crazy live truly horrible lives, that there's a bluebird in his heart that wants to get out.

Here is Bukowski at his most hilarious and heart-breaking, his most raw and profound; here is Bukowski at his best.