L' UOMO DI KIEV | 1968 | BERNARD MALAMUD

L’uomo di Kiev is a historical novel by Bernard Malamud that dramatizes a notorious case of antisemitism in Tsarist Russia. The protagonist, Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman estranged from his past, moves to Kiev in search of work and a new life. After saving an antisemitic industrialist from death, Yakov is employed in his factory; but when a child’s body is discovered nearby, false accusations rooted in ritual murder arise, and Yakov is arrested. The narrative focuses largely on Yakov’s ordeal in confinement, exploring themes of innocence, state corruption, prejudice, and the deformation of identity under persecution. As Yakov suffers humiliation, isolation, and psychological disintegration, Malamud shows the persistence of dignity and the moral struggles of a man who refuses to confess to a crime he did not commit. The novel thus becomes a universal allegory about injustice, the vulnerability of the individual under power, and the quest for truth.