An essential masterwork by Nobel laureate Saul Bellow-now with an introduction by J. M. Coetzee A Penguin Classic Expecting to be inducted into the army to fight in World War II, Joseph has given up his job and carefully prepared for his departure to the battlefront. When a series of mix-ups delays his induction, he finds himself facing a year of idleness. Saul Bellow's first novel documents Joseph's psychological reaction to his inactivity while war rages around him and his uneasy insights into the nature of freedom and choice. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than