This National Book Awardâwinning novel of power, libido, and morality is âa powerful and profoundly disturbing bookâ (The New York Times).
First published in 1968, Jerzy Kosinskiâs classic vision of moral and sexual estrangement captured the deviant undercurrents of the eraâs politics and culture. In this haunting novel, distinctions are eroded between oppressor and oppressed, perpetrator and victim, narcissism and anonymity. Kosinski portrays men and women both aroused and desensitized by an environment that disdains the individual and seeks control over the imagination.
âCĂ©line and Kafka stand behind this accomplished artâ from the celebrated author of The Painted Bird and Being There (The New York Times Book Review).
âA collection of unbelievably creepy little allegorical tableaux done in a terse elegant voice thatâs like nothing else anywhere ever.â âDavid Foster Wallace
âKosinskiâs prose is perfect to his purpose, efficient, detached, lucid as a gem, wholly in command.â âThe New York Times
âBy some miracle of training, which recalls the linguistic bravado of Conrad and Nabokov, he is already a master of pungent and disciplined English prose. Simply as a stylist, Kosinski has few equals among American novelists born to the language. And I have also become convinced, after reading Steps, that he is one of the most gifted new figures to appear in our literature for some years.â âIrving Howe, Harperâs
âA beautifully written book. It is precise, scrupulous, and poetic. I can think of few writers who are able to so persuasively describe an event, set a scene, communicate an emotion.â âGeoffrey Wolff, New Leader