Praise for Indignation

“A gratifying novel … Indignation is, unquestionably, seriously ‘good’ Roth.”

—Meg Wolitzer, The Times

“[Roth] still towers above just about every living English-language author.”

—Toronto Star

“Roth’s secret … is his supreme confidence as a story-teller—and paradoxically, a supreme humility … Of all Roth’s recent novels, it ventures farthest into the unknowable. In his unshowy way, with all his quotidian specificity and merciless skepticism, Roth is attempting to storm heaven—an endeavor all the more desperately daring because he seems dead certain it’s not there.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“We can see again his shocking ability to bring history to bear on the present. As always, the prose is well built—sinewy and graceful—and, as always, the wit is as sharp as a German knife. There are simply no novels by Roth in which you cannot detect the hand of a master.”

—O, The Oprah Magazine

“The implacable face of history … broods menacingly over everything else.”

—The Globe and Mail

“Seethes with outrage … A deft, gripping, and deeply moving narrative.”

—The New York Review of Books

“A fine taut narrative about the frustrations of youth … [A] potent blend of sharp-eyed nostalgia, biting cogency and engrossing social, psychological and moral complexity … As grippingly streamlined as Greek drama, Roth’s mid-20th-century tale of nemesis transmits it again, brilliantly renewed with all the intellectual and imaginative force of a great novelist writing at the height of his powers.”

—The Sunday Times (UK)

“Roth’s ferocious little tale ought to be handed out on college campuses … Here’s a novel to be witnessed as an explosion from an author still angry enough to burn with adolescent rage and wise enough to understand how self-destructive that rage can be.”

—The Washington Post

“The interplay between a life just begun and ended, impulse and reflection, college high jinks and eternity is what makes it resonate. Four stars.”

—People

“[Indignation] reads, in short, like Roth making a quick star turn with many of the elements we have come to expect from him over the years.”

—Chicago Tribune

“It is Roth’s virtuoso skill to couple Marcus’s companionable pleasure in part-time butchering with his nightmare that the knives he wields so dexterously will be used on himself … [Roth’s reasons] are at once insane, plausible, and disastrous.”

—The Boston Globe

“Demands to be read in one sitting. It’s that good. It’s that audacious. It’s that compelling … Indignation is impossible to put down until it’s finished. Then, it’s impossible to shake off the aftermath of this mesmerizing story.”

—The Seattle Times

“A magnificent display of writerly talent: a lean, powerful novel with bold characters who command attention; scenes of impressive dramatic intensity and comic vitality; language that blasts the reader’s cozy complacency (it’s not called Indignation for nothing); and a theme that swells imperceptibly from a murmur to a satisfying roar.”

—The New York Observer

“Roth’s prose is brilliantly engaging, the narrative engrossing and the limning of the characters masterful … Indignation provides breathless, eye-opening reading. It is a vital burlesque of youth and the waste of war … it is among the finest writing about post-World War II America.”

—Canadian Jewish News

“Roth makes everything snap together, almost like a great short story. The brief final section—just a few pages long— masterfully sews together all the images and themes of the book … In Indignation Roth has reached back to Newark to breathe new life into all the old obsessions.”

—The Daily Gleaner

“Roth, blending the bawdy exuberance of his early period and the disenchantment of his recent work, demonstrates with subtle mastery the incomprehensible way one’s most banal, incidental, even comical choices achieve the most disproportionate result.”

—The New Yorker

“Blistering … [Roth] is a master … The shocking rush from this book comes from watching Roth expertly and quickly build up to a half-dozen final pages that absolutely deliver the kill.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“This is a Philip Roth novel and a morbid, ironic surprise or two should be expected. It does not spoil the crisp dialogue, the rush of emotion, the assured storytelling.”

—Winnipeg Free Press

“Intricately wrought, passionate and fascinating … [A] masterpiece.”

—Financial Times

“A relevant and well-judged consideration of how national orthodoxy can have dire personal implications (particularly at a time of war) … Indignation is, among its many pleasures, a controlled expression of wrath.”

—The Telegraph

“A superbly realised novel, which begins with the lighthearted tone of a coming-of-age tale, before unleashing a devastating narrative about dying and the pain of being forever separated from those you love.”

—The Spectator (UK)

“Beneath the engines of his rage, Roth cannot suppress his fierce love for the innocent—for Marcus on his road to destruction … for America itself, still innocent enough to dream of a better tomorrow. Indignation ought to be required reading for presidential candidates.”

—Evening Standard