By Philip Roth
432 pages; Vintage
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"It is epic in that it encapsulates America in the 20th century," David Duchovny says of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The story, which takes place in the Jewish community of Newark, New Jersey, in the era after WWII, examines the American dream as pursued by a former high school star athlete. "The fact that it is set in the Northeast and has to do with Jewish immigrants was resonant for me; my father was a contemporary of Philip Roth and of similar background," says Duchovny, a New York City native whose paternal grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. "I recognize the sensibility, the cultural associations, and the assimilation anxiety."

— As told to Karen Holt