Few novels have ever come to symbolize an entire era. And the most impressive of these is the most talked-about American book of the 20th century. Since its first publication in 1939, it has sold hundreds of millions of copies and has been translated and retranslated into most languages.
The era is the 1930s, the Great Depression, the archetypal economic crisis that imprinted itself with terror on the collective imagination. And the writer who described and explained it so powerfully and so clearly, that his work will remain forever in history, is John Steinbeck, with "The Grapes of Wrath."
"The Grapes of Wrath" is a hymn to humanity and humaneness, to the strength of family, to the struggle for daily bread, to the small acts of kindness of people. Through the story of the Joad family, who are uprooted from their land and migrate, a truth is proclaimed: and this truth, given with a literary immediacy that captivates, is as absolute and urgent today as it was when it was first written.
Perhaps more than any other book, this one proves that great literature does not need to be an enigmatic puzzle, but can, with stunningly familiar words and images, resonate with the soul of every person.