The Human Stain

The theme of this disturbing and gripping novel is the stuff of Greek tragedy - how capricious human fate is, or can seem when that fate is unavoidable. Coleman Silk, a classics professor at a New England university, clears out the dead wood in his department with a hubristic disregard for diplomacy and tact; his nemesis, Professor Delphine Roux, seizes her chance to strike when an ambiguous phrase used by Silk can be interpreted to daub him as a racist; the witch-hunt that follows costs him his job and, he believes, provokes the death of his wife. Silk further defies the gods of political correctness through an affair with an illiterate office cleaner more than half his age. The plot pivots on Silk's darkest secret, which cannot be revealed here; suffice to say that a decision made in youth will plant the seed of an old man's destruction. And whom the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad. Silk's story, narrated by Roth's fictional hero Nathan Zuckerman, unfolds against the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 and there is no doubt that Roth sees both the president and the professor as flawed men, as all men are, brought down by malevolent forces. An angry and eloquent indictment of modern America. (Kirkus UK)