Kindle Price: $2.99

Save $9.01 (75%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Jerzy Kosinski
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Devil Tree Kindle Edition

by Jerzy Kosinski (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
See all formats and editions
Kosinski’s classic, acclaimed as “an impressive novel . . . should confirm [his] position as one of our most significant writers” (Newsweek).
 
A searing novel from a writer of international stature, The Devil Tree is a tale that combines the existential emptiness of Camus’s The Stranger with the universe of international playboys, violence, and murder of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
 
Jonathan Whalen’s life has been determined from the start by the immense fortune of his father, a steel tycoon. Whalen’s childlike delight in power and status mask a greater need, a desire to feel life intensely, through drugs, violence, sex, and attempts at meaningful connection with other people—whether lovers or the memory of his dead parents. But the physical is all that feels real to him, and as he embarks on a journey to Africa with his godparents, Whalen’s embrace of amoral thrill accelerates toward ultimate fulfillment.
 
“Savage . . . [Whalen is] a foolproof, timeless American character.” —Cosmopolitan
Previous page
  1. Print length
    228 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Grove Press
  5. Publication date
    December 1, 2007
  6. File size
    4656 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004I6DCZC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; Revised, Expanded edition (December 1, 2007)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4656 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 228 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jerzy Kosinski

Jerzy Kosinski

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
39 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jim Sommerville
5.0 out of 5 stars loved it
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
loved it
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Dark, Darker, Darkest
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2018
Verified Purchase
I could have done without all the Karl Marx lengthy quotes; a few lines would be sufficient to tie into the theme of the book. All the parts of his life story are wonderfully tied together. The inner being babble could have been eliminated, but probably adds to some reader's enjoyment, just makes my eyes glaze over. Overall, I honestly enjoyed the book. Not sure I understood it as the author intended, but then, I'm not on a controlled substance.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
firefighter
5.0 out of 5 stars favorite writer, extremely interesting author
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2015
Verified Purchase
Jerzy Kosinski: favorite writer, extremely interesting author.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Glenn Russell
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharp, penetrating observation of the plight of human entanglement
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013
Jerzy Kosinski's novel, The Devil Tree, takes place in 1970s America, a world of the Me generation, where an entire population had easy access to multiple partner sex, powerful mind-bending and sense-enhancing drugs and a plethora of self-help books ranging from jogging, diet, and speed-reading to primal screams, transactional analysis and do-it-yourself psychodrama. Being an adult and holding a philosophy of self-indulgence and pleasure, especially the pleasure of enjoyable sensations, is one thing, but, since as an adult, one is usually obliged to hold down a fairly routine job and attend to the round of family and everyday practical matters, one's hedonism must be tempered with a good measure of pragmatism and stoicism, which is to say, one has to learn to delay one's pleasure-seeking and bouts of self-absorption. But what of those men and women who have enormous piles of money given to them, and thus freed from any need for job or work, and miles removed from taking on the responsibility of family and children? Well, meet the novel's main character, Jonathan James Whalen, one such man, a man in his 20s, with a huge family fortune but no family- no wife and children, no brother or sister, and, most dramatically as the result of two separate tragedies, no mother or father. Whalen is a family of one - himself. And being super-rich in the 1970s this mean Me with a capital `M", which, in turn, means Me and my desires and pleasures - many, many desires and oh-so-many pleasures.

Similar to Kosinski's autobiographical first novel, The Painted Bird, this work is nearly free of dialogue. The story is not broken into chapters but rather told in short 1st person and 3rd person vignettes revealing in spurts and bursts the character of Whalen and others around him, including Karen, his friend and lover he's known since childhood, as well as his departed parents -- emotionally distraught mother and famous entrepreneurial father . The vignettes seem to match the mind-set of the super-rich, especially Whalen: staccato, psychological, intensely preoccupied with self and with the unending search for satisfaction and meaning in life through other people. Not a happy formula. And, predictably, Whalen and Karen experience more frustration and dissatisfaction than satisfaction and happiness. And speaking of the psychological, Whalen belongs to that 1970s Me generation mass-phenomenon: the encounter group, which prompts his musing: "I don't like to think I'm as confused or simple-minded as others, but if I really am more complex, more experienced than they are, why should I want them to understand me?"

Here is a one of Whalen's reflections on his life and wealth: "When I was a child, I thought my possessions and properties belonged to me because I was pretty, as everyone continually assured me. Now I know I despise people who associate the way I look with my money and family connections, as though physical attractiveness is merely a matter of expensive shirts and custom-made suits. But even now it's hard for me to imagine being very wealthy and ugly at the same time: money and beauty are still my God-given rights." How different are Whalen's reflection on money and beauty than most other Americans in the 1970s or any time, for that matter? Before devoting his complete creative energy to fiction, Kosinski studied and wrote in the social sciences. We can read this novel on a number of levels, including a work of keen sociological insight. The Devil Tree as a mirror on an entire society and culture. What do you see when you look in the mirror, America? Do you see any differently now that you are 40 years removed from the 1970s and the Me generation?

We follow Whalen going round and round and round for years in a high-speed, money-glutted, drug and liquor induced whirlwind, when finally he gains a measure of control of his emotions and can choose freely. But what a choice. Halfway through the novel we read: "My depressions are no longer such natural urges as sex, sleep and hunger. Now they are completely calculated. I could as easily have done something else yesterday afternoon, but I chose to enact a familiar ritual, to dull my mind and lose myself completely. . . . I went to the liquor store and bought a fifth of Jack Daniel's. I went upstairs, poured myself a drink and put on a record. By six I had finished half the bottle as was thoroughly depressed, but comforted by the thought that I had selected my mood. I felt that at last I had total emotional control." So there we have it: freely choosing depression. What a statement on the super-rich lifestyle.

Toward the end of the novel, Whalen finally realizes he has been followed for quite some time, which leads to some real drama and propels him into real action fueled by the real emotion of revenge. Within this episode of revenge, Whalen relays the meaning of `the devil tree', a meaning involving the devil getting tangled in the tree's branches and turning the tree upside down. Considering Kosinski's horrific childhood, perhaps the author developed a sharp, penetrating observation of the plight of human entanglement when money is the tree. This is a question left to each reader. I urge you to order a copy of this fine novel and make your own decision.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Rhône
1.0 out of 5 stars For the discount Ellis fan.
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is genuinely one of the worst books I have ever read. I can’t even start with the non-stop sex scenes clearly written by a man that has never made a woman orgasm. All about nepotism and white boy ego trips. This was so bad that I actually threw it away, as I’d never disgrace my book shelf with such trash.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tina Heller
2.0 out of 5 stars I didn't really get it.
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 1998
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski is one of my all time favorite books, so, after reading it, I was anxious to check out another of his titles. I was disappointed with the Devil Tree. I had a hard time getting through it. I kept getting the distinct impression that it's meaning and signifigance were going over my head. I would love to hear another reader's opinion. If you came away from The Devil Tree with a different impression than I did, or you would just like to converse about it, I'd be happy to hear from you.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
meeah
4.0 out of 5 stars the anti-Horatio Alger story
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2010
Well I see that this book now has a better cover than it did on the older edition I had from a different publisher (Bantam). The cover on my edition was so awful I had to cover it with masking tape and scribble over it the picture of a satanic tree. The publishers had stuck some inane photo of a woman in boots at the prow of a boat--good grief! I guess this was from the days when a dearth of originality and a pandering to the lowest common denominator invariably led a publisher flummoxed about how to sell anything actually resembling a real book to say, "I know, lets put a provocatively clad woman on the cover!"

What am I talking about..."from the days?" We're still in those days. Anyway, its nice to see someone at Grove at least stretching their creative muscle enough to use Photoshop to solarize the picture of a tree for the cover of this edition. Its not terribly original, but its not terribly embarrassing either.

But enough about the cover. Let's talk about the back cover copy. The back cover copy on my edition was only less embarrassing than the cover photo because it required you to take the trouble to read it--and reading, as anyone can judge from the quality of the types of books published nowadays, is something very few people take the time to do, if, that is, they can actually do it. The copy on my edition of "The Devil Tree" was all, like, far out, man, all trippy, and tuned-in and dropped out and stuff.

Look, this is a serious novel by an incisive social critic of the late 20th century American scene. It deals specifically with the corruption and decadence of a culture--American culture in this case--when the irrepressible creativity and drive that inspired a society's great innovators peters out and leaves little trace in their descendants except for the tremendous amount of accumulated wealth and power that has been inherited by those far less directed toward any goal.

Whalen, Kosinski's protagonist in "The Devil Tree," is one such privileged fellow. A man who has been given all that anyone can ever want, he has no idea what to do with it. He has everything, in fact, but an identity of his own. There is a woman, Karen, a beautiful model, who is as vacuous at her core as he is. These two vacuums orbit about each other, mutually afraid to get sucked into the void of each other.

Kosinski really is a brilliant writer--his prose sharp and gemlike, bits of glittering collage, a postmodern mosaic of literary style. This book--and Kosinski himself--deserves much better regard than it seems to me they've enjoyed since his rather ignominious last years and passing. I consider "Steps" to be his masterwork, but "The Devil Tree" is close behind it.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Barbara C
1.0 out of 5 stars Returned them
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
Not as expected
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Lisa
5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Book
Reviewed in Canada on December 5, 2018
Verified Purchase
Only Kosinski can offer up such a twisted but fascinating narrative. Slices of time and incidents that make up the novel are strangely compelling and this title satisfied my reading preferences at the time when I choose the book. It's hard to put down, in a similar way that one finds it hard to avert one's eyes from tragic occurrences.
Report
Ms. C. A. Oladipo
5.0 out of 5 stars The Devil Tree
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
Excellent quality and price. Very prompt delivery. My son is a Kosinski fan and this is for his birthday. I think he'll enjoy it---I'm having a sneak read before I hand it over! Kosinski books are really hard to find , and usually rather expensive, so I was delighted to find this one.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report