The Magic Barrel

Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggling New York painter Arthur Fidelman. roams amid the ruins of old Europe in search of his artistic patrimony); they tell of egg candlers and shoemakers, matchmakers and rabbis, in a voice that blends vigorous urban realism, Yiddish idiom, and a dash of artistic magic. The Magic Barrel is a great book about New York and about the immigrant experience.Bernard Malamud is the author of 'The Magic Barrel' with ISBN 9780783890104 and ISBN 0783890109.