INTRODUCTION Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant is a poignant and layered novel. It explores deep struggles with identity, morality, and redemption within the immigrant experience of 1950s Brooklyn. Published in 1957, it is Malamud’s second novel and is often hailed as a modern American classic. The book is also a cornerstone of Jewish-American literature, capturing the complexities of immigrant life through its intertwined characters. At the centre is Morris Bober, an ageing Jewish grocer. He struggles to keep his small...