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Ballad of the Whiskey Robber

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the award-winning saga of Attila Ambrus, a Transylvanian refugee who came to define an era. Born under Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1967, Attila escaped into Hungary underneath a train in 1988, just before the fall of communism. He worked as a gravedigger, an animal pelt smuggler, a zamboni driver, and a (terrible) professional hockey goalie before taking up robbery to make ends meet. His performance art style heists of the former communist state bank, OTP, struck a chord and the legend of the “Whiskey Robber” was born.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a story about capitalism, national identity and the tumultuous post-communist era in Eastern Europe.

Donald Blinken, US Ambassador to Hungary, 1994-98: "Beautifully captures the mood and ethos of post-Cold War Budapest. I loved it."

Footage of Attila's Release From Prison
Origo (Hungary)

Time Magazine's 2012 Novelist of the Year Picks Whiskey Robber as his #1 Book
Best-selling author John Green's Top Books of 2012

Hungary's Robin Hood
Christian Science Monitor

The Great Escape
Central Europe Review

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Liberation (France)

Worst pro goalie ever still in jail - for robbing banks
USA Today

The "Whisky Robber": Criminality as a Moral Discourse in Post-'89 Hungary
Maya Nadkarni, Visiting Asst. Professor, Swarthmore College, from her PhD dissertation for Columbia University in cultural anthropology:

Whiskey Robber Released From Prison
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Insight on the News