The Fixer

A Novel

By: Bernard Malamud

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

The Fixer is the winner of the 1967 National Book Award for Fiction and the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The Fixer (1966) is Bernard Malamud's best-known and most acclaimed novel - one that makes manifest his roots in Russian fiction, especially that of Isaac Babel.

Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy. Bok leaves his village to try his luck in Kiev and, after denying his Jewish identity, finds himself working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society. When the boy is found nearly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hundreds accuse the Jews of ritual murder. Arrested and imprisoned, Bok refuses to confess to a crime that he did not commit.

©1966 Bernard Malamud, renewed 1994 by Ann D. Malamud (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Poignant

Excellent novel. Not a huge fan of the ending, but all else was spectacular. Brilliant insights into Russian anti-Semitism.

10 hours of despair, hopelessness and cruelty.

it's well-written and well-read but I kept waiting for something more to happen; some relief to the suffering, but it never comes. In terms of misery this book lands somewhere between the Book of Job and Jude The Obscure. The abrupt ending shocked me. I was left wanting more. It's just so depressing.

Good history lesson

The issue of always blaming the Jews for all a counties ills is continuous over time. It’s amazing how some people will create their own truth to satisfy their own prejudices. The book itself was pretty good but the ending ruined the whole experience.

injustice

it was a difficult book to hear and I am sure that was intentional. How little we gave learned!

Difficult, but essential

This book is challenging to listen to but excellent. Bracing, elucidating, heartbreaking. I highly recommend it for any Malamud fan.