No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. First published in hardcover by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., in 1973. Revised and expanded edition first published in hardcover by St. Martin’s Press in 1981. This Grove Press edition is printed in special arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, New York. This book is fiction. Any similarity to any actual event or character,whether past or present, is gratuitous and not intended. Printed in CanadaPublished simultaneously in Canada Acknowledgements: The quotation used as an epigraph preceding the text is taken from Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Who Is Man?