Pictures Of Fidelman - Tapa blanda

"A delightful piece of work, and it shows a major artist's mastery of his medium... Fidelman is a superb picaresque hero, and the novel is always entertaining, often hilariously so" (Sunday Times)

"The accent of a hard-won and individual emotional truth is always heard in Malamud's words. He is a rich original of the first rank." (Saul Bellow)

"In Mr Malamud we may indeed salute a new American writer of power and originality. He has a wonderful sense of character and atmosphere" (Daily Telegraph)

"One of the best writers in the English language... His work embeds itself in one's consciousness and refuses to be dislodged" (Sunday Times)

Arthur Fidelman, Bronx-born and raised, is a self-confessed failure as a painter. When he goes to Italy to prepare a critical study of Giotto, a picaresque tale of comedy and adventure ensues. Pursued through the streets of Rome by the refugee Susskind, falling into the hands of art thieves, hand-carving wooden Madonnas, becoming a pimp, attempting to sculpt the perfect hole, Fidelman is a comic creation of genius.