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#3202 of 8,085 books · #1569 in Fiction

Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction (1958).

The Assistant was named to Time magazine's 'All-Time list of 100 Novels'. 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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Publisher
Atlantic Books Ltd
ISBN-13
9781782393542
Genre
Topics
Redemption and guiltImmigrant experiencePoverty and struggle

Awards

Other awarded books from Bernard Malamud