The searing debut novel by Chester Himes, 'written with youthful panache and a bellyful of anger' (Observer)

Robert 'Bob' Jones - crew leader, shipyard worker, educated, employed - is finding life impossible. Though he's recently been promoted to supervisor, he is disrespected and resented by white colleagues; and despite his relationship with the high-class Alice, he is crudely baited by the manipulative Madge. Over the course of four fraught days in Los Angeles, he is plagued with increasingly violent urges as the bigotry and cruelty he faces day-in-day-out become unbearable. Chester Himes's shattering debut is a masterful reckoning with the poisonous effects of racism, and a monumental protest novel.

'A relentless, gripping, classic novel, one of the most powerful exposes of what it is like to be black in America' LA Times

About the Author
Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1909 and grew up in Cleveland. Aged 19 he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in jail. In jail he began to write short stories, some of which were published in Esquire magazine. Upon release he took a variety of jobs, from working in a California shipyard to journalism to script-writing, while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he was commissioned to write the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand Prix du Roman Policier. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.


Book Information
ISBN 9780241692424
Author Chester Himes
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 193g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 15mm