伯納德•馬拉默德（1914-1986）

馬拉默德齣生於布魯剋林，畢業於紐約市立大學及哥倫比亞大學。他先在俄勒岡州立大學任教，1961年加入本寜頓大學任教。由於缺乏學曆，他不能教授文學，並且隻能長期擔任講師。但他卻是二十世紀最偉大的文學傢之一，在歐美及世界文學界享有很高的聲望。他描寫短篇，堪比契訶夫、巴彆爾；他寫猶太人，直逼索爾•貝婁；他揭發荒謬，不下奧威爾、索爾仁尼琴。他的作品大多反映底層猶太人的睏苦生活，描摹他們的喜樂悲歡和強韌性格；其風格幽默而含蓄，色彩濃重而明朗，筆端飽含著同情小人物的悲憫精神。他幾乎囊括所有美國最要的文學奬，是兩度美國國傢圖書奬，以及普利策文學奬和歐•亨利短篇小說奬的得主。他的重要作品有短篇小說集《魔桶》（The Magic Barrel,1959年美國國傢圖書奬）、《修配工》（1967年美國國傢圖書奬、普利策文學奬）以及《抽屜裏的男人》（The Man in the Drawer,1969年歐•亨利短篇小說奬）。

A classic that won Malamud both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award "The Fixer" (1966) is Bernard Malamud's best-known and most acclaimed novel -- one that makes manifest his roots in Russian fiction, especially that of Isaac Babel. Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy. Bok leaves his village to try his luck in Kiev, and after denying his Jewish identity, finds himself working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society. When the boy is found nearly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hundreds accuse the Jews of ritual murder. Arrested and imprisoned, Bok refuses to confess to a crime that he did not commit.