Philip Roth - Düh

After God is with you, Columbus and Nemesis - the author's very first and last book - in the Philip Roth series, 21. Szazad Kiadó is now publishing another late short novel, Fury, set during the Korean War, with a young hero as well.

What decisions fatally shape life? How does the individual stand the blow of circumstances? Philip Roth examines this here as well.

America, 1951, the second year of the Korean War. Hard-working, law-abiding Marcus Messner begins his sophomore year at a conservative college in rural Winesburg, Ohio. He flees here from his hometown, Newark, because his father is almost madly afraid of adult life: the elder Messner is actually afraid that his only son will end up on the Korean front, that is, to death.

In Winesburg, Marcus, who is trying to find his place among the customs and limitations of a different kind of American world, repeatedly encounters the bigoted dean and falls in love with the beautiful but damaged Olivia. In Marcus, love and solidarity towards parents, sense of self and sense of duty, uncompromising intellect and naivety collide, and all of this leads to missteps that together prove to be a tragic mistake.

Düh - like Nemesis - is a true modern-day tragedy, which was also made into a movie in the USA in 2016 under the original title Indignation.

"Intricate, passionate and enchanting... A true late masterpiece." - John Banville, Financial Times

Author: Philip Roth