Herman Wouk's galvanizing fictional portrait of an American novelist is itself a work of fiction that teems with energy, incident, and emotion. Tracing the journey of Arthur Youngblood Hawke from the small Kentucky mining town of his childhood to the pinnacle of literary celebrity and success in New York and Hollywood, the novel brings to life a whole galaxy of vivid characters as it offers one of the most sobering and enthralling portraits of the literary life ever written.

"A big, powerful, exciting novel...Wouk has a tremendous narrative gift." --San Francisco Chronicle