Früchte des Zorns

A novel that is so dense and yet so horrifying that one shudders at the inhuman dimension of Steinbeck's work. Impoverished agricultural workers can no longer make a living in Oklahoma. They hear of the promised land of California and set off through heat and dust. Yet here too, they experience the power and oppression of the large landowners. With this book, John Steinbeck established his literary fame. The response in America upon its publication was immense: counter-arguments were written, politicians and archbishops condemned it, the author was labeled a rabble-rouser and class fighter - and celebrated as the voice of the oppressed and exploited. His novel, based on extensive research, became the foundation for sociological studies and served as the basis for the film of the same name by John Ford. In 1940, Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1962, the Nobel Prize for Literature.