Irwin Shaw Books

A short-story collection dramatizing the author's views of the human condition

In this lively anthology of 21 stories and one classic poem about football, fathers and sons tackle their issues, coaches and quarterbacks collide, and ordinary heroes emerge from the blitz.

New York Times Bestseller: A provocative novel about one man’s struggle with courage and his conscience at the height of McCarthyism. Clement Archer, head of a popular radio show, faces a profound dilemma: Five of his employees stand accused of being communists, and a magazine threatens disclosure unless Archer fires each and every one. Despite his efforts to meet his own moral standards and avoid self-incrimination, Archer finds himself hounded from both ends of the political spectrum for his seemingly righteous actions. The Troubled Air, Irwin Shaw’s second novel, was published immediately before the author moved to Europe, where he lived for the next twenty-five years. The story remains a powerful portrayal of a good, decent man ensnared by the hysteria and cruelty of a dark period in American history.

The Young Lions is a vivid and classic novel that portrays the experiences of ordinary soldiers fighting World War II. Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war.

A beautiful Italian girl, a one-time movie idol turned NATO diplomat, a violent, talented young American writer, a once-famous movie director, all come together in Rome in an attempt to salvage a movie and escape the demands of lives they are afraid to face.

Ten Stories by one of America's top ten writers: all with the nuance of city detail, the magical spirit of the present, that the author [...] can bootle so expertely. Daily Mail, Back cover

Rich Man, Poor Man is the story of two brothers whose contrasting natures reflect the turmoil of post-war America. Rudy is the rich man - a romantic who would let no one stand between him and success. Tom is the poor man - the black sheep of the family on the run from his violent past.

The Stands are a self-reliant family in New York City. Far from wealthy they are still reasonably content with their life until one night when their teenage daughter helps a wealthy and lonely Wall Street lawyer. Out of gratitude the lawyer showers the family with gifts and money. The Strands find their lives altered and not necessarily for the best.

One of Irwin Shaw's most unforgettable heroes battles to resurrect his declining career against a tough cast of women, whiskey, and old memories Jesse Crain was made for Cannes. A middle-aged filmmaker who dazzled audiences during Hollywood's Golden Age, Crain is talented, worldly, ambitious, and he knows how to play the game. As the Riviera sparkles in the spring of 1970, Crain juggles industry players while charming a persistent young journalist and fending off groupies. Beneath his polished exterior, though, Crain's life is coming apart at the seams. His last two films flopped, and for several years he's been adrift. Now desperate to reignite his career, a hit at any price feels like his only salvation. "Evening in Byzantium" is a masterwork that brilliantly documents a man's precipitous slide--along with that of his industry--from independence toward cynical mediocrity. It is a timeless story of a determined character grappling with the nature of success and power. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

Michael Storr's joy comes from physical danger as a parachutist, a surfer, a hang glider, a free faller, a reckless skier. Oppressed by his life in New York City, he feels choked by his career as an executive in a high powered office as an executive in a high powered office, choked by the airless world of air conditioned towers. His own sanity depends on his finding a purer, simpler, more vigorous existence, and he sets out to search for one, even though he loses his wife in the process. He finds the physical excitement he craves but along with it developments he has not contempated. For some of the personal relationships in which he becomes entangled prove as threatening as the most dangerous of his sports.