The Rolling Bootlegs

Prohibition-era, New York.

Underworld organization Camorra is anticipating an important ceremony in a few days. The thief couple has just arrived at Grand Central Station. The three Mafia brothers are occupied by a little problem. The delinquent is bitter about having to face an unsatisfactory reality. The dutiful Lieutenant is irritated with everyone aforesaid. And the alchemist continues to chase after an ambition from 200 years ago.

In the Borough of Manhattan, different paths have yet to cross one another.

Until the fateful revival of Elixir of Life...

available text

my review

Any Baccano! fan should not be without this novel. Not only does it introduce an extensive list of vocabularies exclusive to Baccano! universe, it also provides a detailed overview of the various key characters who will play major roles throughout the series. If you're someone who watched the anime before reading any Baccano! novels, I would recommend you to get a copy of this book ASAP (or at least read my crappy translations): it covers a lot of missing details from the anime (due to time constraints) that will explain the numerous gaps you might have felt while enjoying certain episodes.

As could be expected from any newbie author, Narita's writing style was not yet mature in this volume and you'll find a larger amount of spelling errors here than in his later books. I highly recommend you to read this book in one breath - so that you'll remember all the important details when you reach the last page - though I have no doubt that the number of character POV switches in this volume will keep you busy from the beginning til the end.

author's note

This is my debut work and the start of my first novel serialization, which had the honor to receive the Gold Award from Dengeki Novel Prize.

While writing Baccano!, I've consulted many excellent works such as Mafia ~ Myth and Reality and Capone ~ People and Time. Nevertheless, I had to mix a great deal of fiction elements and real-world situations in order to keep up with Baccano!'s unique flow of plot (eg. The description of Camorra's promotion ceremony), and I take full responsibility of any misleading historical details found in this book.

"I want to write something about the Prohibition! Maybe Light Novel is a good place to start: not many books in this genre have Prohibition-era as a setting, which however might catch the judges' attention more easily." After watching The Untouchables, I spent approximately 10 days smashing a series of inspirations together and voila, Baccano! was born out of my useless calculations.

In the beginning, I planned to write about a magician from ancient times who was revived in Prohibition-era and caused great terror in New York. Then a group of Mafia would rise from the dark and rebel against the magician by means of violence - though in the end, the story turned out to be totally different from what I first imagined.

In this novel, there is a huge cast who, despite different motives at first glance, intentionally or unintentionally act and assemble towards one single conclusion. I learned of this approach through my past participation in PBM (play-by-mail game?) and the various doujin? groups created around it, which somehow became my most natural writing style overtime. This book is a good proof of my statement, having solely been completed based on the unpredictable actions of different characters while twisting whatever structure the book had had in the beginning.

There were more supernatural elements in Baccano! at the initial stage of writing than what we have now. For example: Maiza was a hypnotist; Ennis was a succubus who had explicit bed scenes with Firo; Szilard was able to use Io-like spells (see Dragon Quest); every Camorra member except Firo was killed in the end...

I'm so glad those ideas were never used.

Oh, I'm also relieved by the fact that I never wrote a detailed outline for this book to begin with (so the characters were able to move on their own).

Thank you, dear characters!

Character Notes

Firo: He's supposedly the protagonist of this series. I didn't really have a model for him, though my feelings toward Firo as an Italian immigrant are influenced by an article I've once read, written by an Italian novelist. To quote his words: "When I was a child, I yearned to be one of those Italians in the movies. Nobody around me had such bright and happy faces like theirs." (I only skimmed it through in the library so there could be difference in wordings.) That being said, Firo's personality and course of actions have not been designed after anyone, which made him a rather plain character as a result. I used to find it hard moving Firo along with the plot, though the problem was solved in later volumes when Firo's shy affection for Ennis became an apparent trait.

Useless notes about "Welcome to Bat Castle!"

(For those who don't know what this is about, feel free to skip.)

I've received a lot of questions about this through net and PBM events, so allow me to clarify: it's true that I maintain a casual relationship with writers of "Still Town" scripts, and I've indeed borrowed research notes from them about Mafia and Prohibition-era in general. However, I was not a member of Still Town at the time Baccano! was being written: I was actually a resident of Elsley Town and did not have any interaction with the aforesaid writers until the Mystery Movie Festival a few years later. As a result, rumors about Baccano! being a product of the game is absolutely inaccurate and should best be disregarded.

Wait, how did something like Still Town come out before names like The Untouchables and Snatch in a Baccano! topic...?

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Claire Stanfield

"I will never destroy the world that you have believed in."