Since there no longer seems to be such a thing as bad publicity, Lorenzo Carcaterra's Sleepers (Ballantine; 404 pages; $23) can be deemed a resounding success even before it hits the best-seller lists. Not only has Hollywood paid $2.1 million for the film rights. Better yet, Carcaterra's self-described "true story" has prompted newspaper articles containing charges that parts or all of the book are simply the author's inventions.
Some of these suspicions arise naturally from Carcaterra's incredible first-person tale. He and his three best friends, so he says in the book, grow up in Hell's Kitchen, a working-class neighborhood on the...
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