Saul Bellow

Augie March is a Jewish-American boy growing up fatherless and poor in Depression-era Chicago. He seeks a "special destiny," although his circumstances seem to position him for a uniquely disappointing life: his family consists of a simple-minded mother, a brother and "grandmother" who prove to be Machiavellian in their intentions, and an "idiot" youngest brother, Georgie.

In one of his finest achievements, Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow presents a multifaceted portrait of a modern-day hero. A suffering and persecuted intellectual, Moses E. Herzog passively accepts the disasters of his private and public affairs in an effort to survive modern civilization. This is the story of Moses Herzog, a great sufferer, joker, mourner, and charmer. Although his life steadily disintegrates around him-he has failed as a writer and...

Written in 1944, Dangling Man takes the form of the journal of a young man waiting to be drafted. He has received notice, but a series of mix-ups keeps him waiting for the official call to arms.

"The best novel to come out of America or England for a generation." V.S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books A Penguin Classic In this unique noir masterpiece by the incomparable Saul Bellow, a young man is sucked into the mysterious, heat-filled vortex of New York City. Asa Leventhal, a temporary bachelor with his wife away on a visit to her mother, attempts to find relief from a Gotham heat wave, only to be accosted in the park by a down-at-the-heels...

"Isaac Bashevis Singer's 'Gimpl tam' was published in Yiddish in 1945, about a month before Nazi Surrender. A story of bullying and the potential for revenge, is the deathbed confession of an orphaned baker who is targeted by his community for ridicule and practical jokes. Gimpl has come to be seen as a symbol of the Jewish people in the diaspora, and minorities in general. Should they be passive in the face of aggression? Or should they defend themselves?...