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 farmworkers can no longer make a living in Oklahoma. They hear about the promised land of California and set out through heat and dust on their journey. However, 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-writings were produced, politicians and archbishops condemned it, the author was labeled a rabble-rouser and class warrior - 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 eponymous film by John Ford. In 1940, Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1962, the Nobel Prize for Literature.