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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

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Frank Alpine, a drifter fleeing from his past, runs straight into struggling Brooklyn grocer Morris Bober. Seeing a chance to atone for past sins, Frank becomes Bober´s assistant and keeps shop when the owner takes ill. But it is Bober´s daughter, Helen, who gives Frank a real reason to stay around, even as he begins to steal from the store.

Widely considered as one of the great American-Jewish novels, The Assistant is a classic look at the social and racial divides of a country still in its infancy, and a stunning evocation of the immigrant experience - of cramped circumstances and great expectations.

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Perfect... A lyric marvel The Nation

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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.

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