Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (Paperback)

Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen are among America's best-loved and most lauded independent filmmakers. With O Brother, Where Art Thou? the Oscar-winning team returns to the period-piece films of their earlier career ( Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy) and showcase once again their pitch-perfect ear for hilarious and outrageous dialogue, as well as their penchant for the thematically fantastic.

This widely celebrated film draws inspiration from the epic poetry of Homer, the classic comedy of Preston Sturges, and the mythology and musical variety of the American blues. A blend of adventure, humor, and heartfelt emotion, the film takes its title from Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, and proceeds to put a unique modern-day spin on The Odyssey. Set in the American Deep South during the Depression, its heroes are three escapees from a Mississippi prison chain-gang: raffish Everett Ulysses McGill, sweet and simple Delmar, and permanently angry Pete. Still in shackles, but with nothing to lose, the threesome encounter a hitchhiker called Tommy Johnson, who claims to have sold his soul to the devil in order to master the blues guitar. Together, the outlaws cut a bluegrass record, which becomes a huge hit. But they have precious little time to savor success, and must press on across swampy terrain, pursued by the cunning and mysterious lawman Sheriff Cooley, who is bent on bringing them back to the prison farm.