American Pastoral by Philip Roth

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

'Swede' Levov is living the American dream. He glides through life cocooned by his devoted family, his demanding yet highly rewarding business, his sporting prowess, his good looks. He is the embodiment of thriving, post-war America, land of liberty and hope. Until the sunny day in 1968, when the Swede's bountiful American luck deserts him.

Marvellous.. Raging and elegaic * Guardian *
Full of insight, full of sharp ironic twists, full of wisdom about American idealism, and full of terrific fun... A profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years * Financial Times *
A tragedy of classical proportions...a magnificent novel * The Times *
Wonderful, rich...entirely gripping * Sunday Telegraph *
A momentous novel * Observer *

Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey on 19 March 1933. The second child of second-generation Americans, Bess and Herman Roth, Roth grew up in the largely Jewish community of Weequahic, a neighbourhood he was to return to time and again in his writing. After graduating from Weequahic High School in 1950, he attended Bucknell University, Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago, where he received a scholarship to complete his M.A. in English Literature.

In 1959, Roth published Goodbye, Columbus – a collection of stories, and a novella – for which he received the National Book Award. Ten years later, the publication of his fourth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, brought Roth both critical and commercial success, firmly securing his reputation as one of America’s finest young writers. Roth was the author of thirty-one books, including those that were to follow the fortunes of Nathan Zuckerman, and a fictional narrator named Philip Roth, through which he explored and gave voice to the complexities of the American experience in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries.

Roth’s lasting contribution to literature was widely recognised throughout his lifetime, both in the US and abroad. Among other commendations he was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the International Man Booker Prize, twice the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award, and presented with the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal by Presidents Clinton and Obama, respectively.

Philip Roth died on 22 May 2018 at the age of eighty-five having retired from writing six years previously.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780099771814
ISBN 10	0099771810
Title	American Pastoral
Author	Philip Roth
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	1998-03-05
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.