When She Was Good Book Cover

When She Was Good


A Literary Fiction Novel

Buy from Amazon

Read Sample
Publisher Description

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral comes a funny, chilling novel set in a small town in the 1940s Midwest, featuring a young woman whose moral goodness may destroy her.

When she was still a child, Lucy Nelson had her alcoholic failure of a father thrown in jail. Ever since then she has been trying to reform the men around her, even if that ultimately means destroying herself in the process.

With his unerring portraits of Lucy and her hapless, childlike husband, Roy, Roth has created an uncompromising work of fictional realism, a vision of provincial American piety, yearning, and discontent that is at once pitiless and compassionate.

More Philip Roth

Follow This Author

Sign up & we'll email you when a new title is available for pre-order or hits the bookshelf

Little Stacks of Modern & Literary Fiction

Get Free & Discounted eBooks

Curated reads, irresistible prices—subscribe now

Save the books you can't wait to read

Create a free account to build your TBR, follow the authors who inspire you, and never miss a release.

Already a member? Log in

Your fiction library, organized

Create a free account to keep track of every book you've read, follow the authors who inspire you, and never miss their next release.

Already a member? Log in