Movie: The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat (December 25, 2023)

Arriving on Christmas Day, the #1 New York Times bestselling history The Boys in the Boat has been adapted for the silver screen by George Clooney! The film based on Daniel James Brown’s beloved and inspiring account of the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany will star Joel Edgerton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Callum Turner, and more. Penguin Books published an exclusive tie-in edition to this major motion picture event, released December 5, 2023.

The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times. Out of the depths of the Depression comes the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain—yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler.

The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest. As The Associated Press noted in their review, this is “[a] riveting and inspiring saga… Readers need neither background nor interest in competitive rowing to be captivated by this remarkable and beautifully crafted history. Written with the drama of a compelling novel, it’s a quintessentially American story.”

For readers of Unbroken or fans of Clooney’s previous World War II drama The Monuments Men, this is unforgettable book that has gripped readers since its original publication nearly ten years ago in 2014. With the film’s arrival, we are excited at the opportunity for a whole new generation of readers to discover the story of The Boys in the Boat.