On the centenary of Malamud's birth, Atlantic Books is proud to republish this searing novel of temptation and transgression by one of the giants of post-war American fiction

Perfect... A lyric marvel --The Nation Rightness permeates this book... Malamud's people are memorable and as real as rock --New York Times Malamud takes a familiar, almost mythical theme, turns it upside down and irradiates it with originality --Time There is a binding theme throughout the book, a search for fundamental truths through the study of ordinary people, their everyday ups and downs, their mundane pleasures and pains... Malamud's vision, style and world are distinctly original --San Francisco Chronicle He writes with wisdom, compassion and humour... in the best tradition of Chekhov, Joyce and Hemingway --New York Times

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) was an American author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American-Jewish authors of the twentieth century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.