Philip Roth (1933-2018) is one of the most celebrated American writers of his age. Born in Newark, New Jersey--where his short stories and thirty-one books were often set--he wrote with immense ambition and drive, along with a keen awareness of what must be done to produce great literature. Yet despite rubbing shoulders with the Kennedys and engaging in a spate of famous and infamous romances, he viewed himself as socially withdrawn, living much like an "unchaste monk" (his words).

In this original and lucid biography, Steven J. Zipperstein captures Roth's complex life and the astonishing range of his self-reflective writings--from "Goodbye, Columbus" and Portnoy's Complaint to the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral and The Plot Against America. Employing extensive archival research and well over one hundred interviews, including conversations with Roth himself, Zipperstein provides an intimate and probing look at one of the twentieth century's most influential authors, placing his work in the context of Jewishness, freedom, and sexuality in America.