Loomingu Raamatukogu publishes Steinbeck’s final novel

Estonian publisher Loomingu Raamatukogu has released American writer and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s final novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, ERR reports. The book was translated into Estonian by Harald Rajamets, and ERR has published an excerpt from it.

Steinbeck (1902–1968) was an American writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate regarded as one of the most important authors of the 20th century. His best-known works include the novels The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and East of Eden.

The Winter of Our Discontent explores, in a witty and poetic way, the nature of the American dream, the moral dilemmas people may face while pursuing it and the different ways those dilemmas can be resolved.

The novel’s protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is an honest and principled man, a devoted father and a caring husband. His once-wealthy family lost its fortune because of a dishonest business partner. When Ethan sees an opportunity to improve his family’s financial position, he faces fundamental ethical choices of his own.

The question of whether material prosperity brings spiritual balance and contentment is often answered only in hindsight.