Job: The Story of a Simple Man

"Job is perfect. . . . a novel as lyric poem."
—Joan Acocella

Job is the tale of Mendel Singer, a pious, destitute Russian Jew and children's Torah teacher whose faith is tested at every turn. His youngest son seems to be incurably disabled, one of his older sons joins the Russian Army, the other deserts to America, and his daughter is running around with a Cossack. When he flees to America with his wife and daughter, further blows of fate await him. In this modern fable based on the biblical story of Job, Mendel Singer witnesses the collapse of his world, experiences unbearable suffering and loss, and ultimately gives up hope and curses God, only to be saved by a miraculous reversal of fortune.

Born in 1894 in a small Galician town on the border of the Hapsburg Empire, Joseph Roth, author of more than fifteen novels, was one of the central figures of the émigré intellectual opposition to the Nazis. Roth is among the greatest Central European writers of the twentieth century.