Sunny's Nights

“Fantastic … [Tim Sultan takes] material that might seem familiar and [mixes] a perfect, insightful cocktail: full-bodied, multitextured and delicious… . Simply beautiful.”—The New York Times Book Review “Sultan’s love of Red Hook shines through, and it’s hard not to be swept along on the ebb and flow of his emotions… . Sultan’s book is, among other things, a meditation on the fragility of the moment and the passage of time… . Wistful, funny and biting, Sunny’s Nights rewards you with its evocation of a certain place in time and, as Sultan calls him, ‘the most original man I have ever met.’”—Newsday “The lasting allure of Sunny’s Nights rests in the confidence it gives readers that, not only can they read about Balzano’s haven, they can find a Sunny’s of their own.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “An affectionate portrait of the idiosyncratic Sunny’s Bar in the Red Hook waterfront neighborhood of Brooklyn.”—USA Today “Sultan finds Sunny … a real character, a poet, a cinephile, a philosopher, bluegrass maestro and (Rheingold) beer server.”—New York Post (“Required Reading”) “Captivating … a classic story about a local bar.”—The Buffalo News “An enchanting memoir, a profound meditation on place and a beautiful story of an unlikely and abiding friendship.”—Brooklyn Daily Eagle “[A] polished, affecting look at remarkable barkeep Sunny Balzano … In elegant prose, Sultan deploys laconic humor, an instinct for telling details, a taste for eccentricity, and above all, clear-eyed compassion for our all-too-human failings.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Beautifully wrought … an indelible portrait of an unusual man and a nearly forgotten part of NYC.”—Booklist “An evocative consideration of Red Hook’s colorful history and distinctive personality.”—Kirkus Reviews“Sunny’s Nights is more than an elegy for a bar and a neighborhood—it’s also a vivid and loving portrait of the larger-than-life eccentric who gave the bar its name and its spirit, and a moving memoir about friendship and finding a home. Tim Sultan is a wonderful writer, wry and observant, with a sly sense of humor and a big heart.”—Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers“Tim Sultan tells the terrific story of how one dark and raggedy waterfront bar changed his life. It is a wonderfully drawn portrait of the artist as barkeep.”—Robert Sullivan, author of My American Revolution “This beautifully written chronicle of a disappearing place and its unforgettable people reveals how, sometimes, friendship endures when everything else, except perhaps the memories, is gone.”—Howard Frank Mosher, author of God’s Kingdom

Tim Sultan’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Spectator, and GQ. The son of a Foreign Service officer, he was raised abroad in Laos, the Ivory Coast, and Germany. He is a graduate of Kenyon College and lives in New York City, where he works as an urban gardener.

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