Books by Ethan Canin

'Take the advice of no one,' August Kleinman is told by his mother, as around them in Hamburg the Nazi party is rising to power. With these words to guide him, August escapes to America, where he builds a fortune. This book tells the story of a man and his family, forging their lives against the backdrop of WWII and the heart of the 20th century.

A quartet of novellas including "Accountant", "Batorsag and Szerelem", "City of Broken Dreams" and "The Palace Thief". In the title story a teacher spots the seeds of corruption in a wayward student and watches with fascinated horror as the boy, and then the man flourishes.

'A many-layered epic of class, politics, sex, death, and social history its reach is wide and its touch often masterly' John Updike