In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history.
In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected president. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh’s election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America—and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.
Philip Roth (1933–2018) was one of the most decorated writers in American history, having won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, the National Book Award, and many more. He also won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union and in the same year received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years “for the entire work of the recipient.”
In the 1990s, Philip Roth published five major works: Patrimony (1991) won the National Book Critics Circle Award; Operation Shylock (1993) won the PEN/Faulkner Award; Sabbath's Theater (1995) won the National Book Award; American Pastoral (1997) won the Pulitzer Prize; and I Married a Communist (1998) won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union. In 1998, he was a White House recipient of the National Medal of Arts.About the reader:Ron Silver, a Tony award-winning stage actor, has starred in numerous films including Reversal of Fortune, and Enemies: A Love Story, as well as the television series Wiseguy. He was a founder of The Creative Coalition, and President of Actors' Equity Association.