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
The Most Popular Man in Hungary
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
Hockey News
The Magyar Jesse James
Insight on the News