"Everyman"

“Everyman” is a novel by Philip Roth, published in 2006. The book won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2007. The story is partly autobiographic. Philip Roth comes from the US, he is Jewish, and an award-winning writer.

The plot is set at the funeral of its main character. The book goes over his life and starts and ends with his death. At the beginning, the author remembers his childhood, when he and his older brother worked in their father's jeweler, called Everyman. The protagonist got married three times, and he had two sons from his first marriage and one daughter from his second marriage. The daughter treats him with sweetness and compassion although he left her mother for another woman, in fact a 24 year old Danish model, who became his third wife. However, the sons behave more heartlessly in front of him just because of the same reason: he left their mother for his second wife.

The book shows the protagonist's feelings and reflections as he turns old and his heart becomes sick, at the same time that he is waiting for his own death. Although the plot seems quite depressing, Roth's mastery turns the story into an introspective journey into the nature of human being in which we recognize ourselves. I recommend you to read.