we interrupt your previously scheduled dirtbags

a giveaway, a thank-you, and other assorted misc.

Hello, friends!

First, never fear! The dirtbags are here and they are going to stay. They are, however, going on a slight hiatus.

I’m now in full-swing promo mode for Fagin the Thief (on shelves 2/25, tell your friends). This is the third time I’ve promoted a forthcoming book, but the first time the promo efforts have required this much from me. I’m so grateful to have so many opportunities to talk about and share this book with people! My team is incredible! I’m talking to my publicist more often than my family members! I’m booking flights! I’m inquiring about studio time! I emailed my editor with the sentence “I JUST GAY GASPED IN MY OPEN FLOOR PLAN OFFICE!” It’s profoundly exciting.

But all this adds up to a lot of writing, talking, traveling, and planning around an ever-expanding 8-5, and as I looked at my to-do list yesterday evening I decided something had to give. And so, I’m taking a brief break from writing full-length Dirtbags Through the Ages posts. This will likely last until I return from book tour in about mid-March, at which point I imagine myself kicking down the door to your inboxes like a very nerdy squirrel, cheeks full of the historical nonsense I’ve stockpiled over the long, brutal winter.¹

You may still get an occasional update from me like this one in January and February: to share big exciting updates like book tour dates, quick notes, or my shouty thoughts about the pope-based thriller Conclave as a late-in-the-month treat if I get around to it.² But there simply will not be enough hours in the day until I’ve launched this gorgeous hardcover rectangle about a little gremlin man out into the world and helped him fly a little.

With that said, there is sorta a point to this particular email: I’m running a Substack-only giveaway of two advance copies of Fagin the Thief!

I am not giving away my beat-up, annotated copy of Oliver Twist, although if you ask nicely I’ll tell you what passage I underlined and wrote “ANTISEMITIC DRACULA” next to

I’m doing this for three reasons:

1. As a thank-you for your patience with me during these weeks of absolute madness

2. As an opportunity to share my terrible criminal protagonist with more people because I’m going nuts loving him this much by myself

3. As a chance to get rid of the last few ARCs I have sitting on top of my printer before my finished copies come in because oh my god the apartment is slowly filling with books send help and/or shelves

To enter, just leave a comment on this post by midnight Central Time on Saturday, January 11. I’ll pick two winners randomly on Sunday and ask you to DM me on Substack with where you’d like me to mail your prize. Entries are open to international and US-based readers alike, though as always allow for a little extra time if mail has to cross an ocean.

My publisher’s summary of the book is below, if somehow I have not thrust this information in front of your face before:

A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London’s most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.

“Fagin the Thief takes one of literature’s greatest rogues and gives him a soul, a backstory, and a spotlight. Layered and clever, Epstein’s story is as ambitious as it is deeply satisfying.” –Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions for You

Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob’s whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.

Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London’s highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protégé, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.

Colorfully written and wickedly funny, Allison Epstein breathes fresh life into the teeming streets of Dickensian London–reclaiming one of Victorian literature’s most notorious villains in an unforgettable new adventure.

(If you were just like “Wait, the Rebecca Makkai? Of

Rebecca Makkai

fame??” YES. THAT ONE. AAH. I AM SO GRATEFUL, REBECCA.)

That’s all for the present, my friends. I hope you all have had a safe and happy start to the new year, and I look forward to staying in periodic contact until the dust settles. Until next time, be well, and if you have suggestions for how to make my brain start being good at higher-level cognition between 9pm and 11:30pm please send them because those are my free hours for book promo but they are not my thinking hours,

-Allison

1. Don’t you say a word about this analogy. It is what it is.

2. Summary of said thoughts: YES