Synopses & Reviews
Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War,
The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially doe the occasion by Norman Mailer.
Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.
Review
"Many consider The Naked and the Dead to be the greatest combat novel ever written by an American. In it, the reader engages with Lieut. Robert Hearn, fighting in the Pacific in World War II. As the story progresses, the reader goes inside his thoughs, experiencing both his real and his imagined fears." New York Times
About the Author
Norman Mailer's first novel,
The Naked and the Dead, is widely regarded as one of the finest American novels of the twentieth century. Among Norman Mailer's other achievements are
Why Are We in Vietnam?,
The Armies of the Night, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1968, and
The Executioner's Song, which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize.