It’s 1951, the Korean War is raging on and Marcus Messner, an intense, law-abiding student from Newark, New Jersey finds himself miles away from home on the conservative campus of Ohio’s Winesburg College. Just how did he end up there? Because of his need to escape his father—a hardworking man who seems to have gone mad with fear about the dangers of adult life that face his beloved boy around every corner. And, so, far from the comforts of Newark, Marcus must find his way, all while negotiating the customs of a wholly different side of America.

Indignation, Philip Roth’s twenty-ninth book, is a remarkable departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience that we’ve come to expect from Roth and a powerful exploration of a remarkable moment in American history.