American Pastoral, by Philip Roth (Jonathan Cape, £15.99 in UK), is America's story, and Seymour "Swede" Levov is America's son. This blond high-school athlete is the grandson of Jewish immigrants, owner of a successful Newark glove factory and husband to a former beauty queen. He loves the country that has given his family every opportunity to succeed. But Levov also has a daughter, Merry, who loathes America so much she destroys the idyllic dream by bombing the local general store in protest against the Vietnam war. Roth beautifully portrays the conflict between old and new values, and poignantly describes the awakening of one man's understanding of his powerlessness to recapture the past.