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Satan's Not A Bad Guy When You Get to Know Him

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“Mordantly funny . . . Fusing provocative insights with razor-edged wit, this offers a captivating take on a haunting chapter of history.”

— Publishers Weekly starred review for Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust

“There’s a laugh on almost every page of Nein, Nein, Nein, but for all his wit and somewhat skewed perspective, Stahl never loses sight of the gravity of the places he visits . . . Stahl’s book shows the thought processes of a man feeling at his lowest soothing his ‘shpilkes’ by experiencing one of the most sobering, draining tours one can possibly imagine. For him, it’s cathartic, and readers might find it to be the same for them.”

— Jewish Journal

“An audacious, emotional journey.”

— The Village Voice on Nein, Nein, Nein

“A better-than-Burroughs virtuoso.”

— The New Yorker on OG Dad

“Apart from its obvious virtues as biographical writing and recreating a lost era, Stahl’s book makes an important point in identifying hysteria as a recurring driving force in the American psyche.”

— The Guardian on I, Fatty

“Original, appalling, indelible picture of a man trying to swim and drown at the same time. Stahl has nerve, heart, a language of his own and a ghastly, riotous humor.”

— Tobias Wolff on Permanent Midnight

Award-winning author, journalist and screenwriter Jerry Stahl’s most recent book is Nein, Nein, Nein! - One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust (Akashic Books, 2023), included in Kirkus Reviews 100 Best Books of 2023 and optioned by Robert Downey. His other books include the best-selling novel, I, Fatty (Bloomsbury, 2004) and the narcotic memoir, Permanent Midnight (Warner Books, 1995) made into a movie starring Ben Stiller. His second memoir, O.G. Dad – Weird Shit Happens When You Don’t Die Young (Rare Bird Books, 2015), is currently in development for television. His much-anthologized journalism and fiction have appeared in Esquire, the Believer, Vice, and the New York Times, among other places. A collection, Gonzo Neurotic: The Best (and Not-So-Best) of Jerry Stahl, is forthcoming from Unnamed Press in September 2026. His next novel, Bad Sex In The Afterlife, will be published by Arcade Books in early 2027.

Stahl has written extensively for TV and film, including the highest rated episodes of CSI, Bad Boys 2, Hemingway & Gellhorn and Escape at Dannemora, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He co-wrote the surreal underground classics, Café Flesh and Dr. Caligari, which continue to be shown at European avant garde festivals and at midnight venues. Stahl has taught at Sylmar Juvenile Hall and San Quentin. His acting credits include David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Apple TVs Severance.

In an interview with The Believer, he was asked if he preferred writing for television or books: “I fell into a few gigs while in a state of not-too-elegant heroin addiction. I was always trying to be a novelist, and took TV gigs the way you’d temp at Macy’s at Christmas: because the opportunity came up, not because you envisioned a lifetime of Macy’s counter-work. Mind you, now I love writing for TV, when I have the opportunity, because you can do cool shit and some of the best writing in the world is out there. To me, at this point, it’s all writing—just different delivery systems.”

A former heroin addict and 38 year old McDonald’s employee, he lives with his family in Los Angeles.

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