The Winter of Our Discontent

By: John Steinbeck, Susan Shillinglaw, Susan Shillinglaw - introduction

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers—a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis

A Penguin Classic

In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American.” Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards. Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty, and today ranks alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Critic reviews

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Great Steinbeck story

The narration was excellent. This is in my top 10 Steinbeck books. East of Eden still holds number one.

Loved every bit of it.

A fantastic story, well presented. An easier listen than "The Grapes of wrath" and "East of Eden", which also is highly recommended.

finished like a Steinbeck does.

need 15 words to leave a review. now I have at least 15. wait, now I do.

A wonderful listen

Loved the story and the narrator was perfectly chosen. I've always loved Steinbeck and this book did not disappoint!

one of my favorites

A great piece of literature, very rich in subtext. Ending might seem cliche to a modern reader but for the time it was published I feel it is rather powerful.