Requiem For Harlem. Mercy Of A Rude Stream Volume 4 - ‘A masterpiece, not remotely like anything else in American literature'

'A landmark of the American literary century' Boston Globe Sixty years after the publication of his great modernist masterpiece, Call It Sleep, Henry Roth returned with Mercy of a Rude Stream - a sequence of four internationally-acclaimed epic novels of immigrant life in early-twentieth century New York. Ira Stigman's polarised life has never been more difficult. On one side is Edith Welles, his supporter, friend and lover; she believes in him.
On the other is his shameful immigrant origins, his poverty, his family with their arguments and lack of sophistication. Then there is his incestuous relations with his sister and his cousin, who may be pregnant. This fourth and final volume, published posthumously, brings to a close one of America's most extraordinary literary odysseys. 'The literary comeback of the century' Vanity Fair 'As unquenchably vibrant with life as the immigrants whose existence it commemorates' Sunday Times 'A dynamic and moving event .