Which novel by Bernard Malamud won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1967? The answer is The Fixer.
Published in 1966, The Fixer is a historical novel set in Tsarist Russia. Its protagonist, Yakov Bok, is a Jewish handyman who is falsely accused of murdering a Christian boy and imprisoned during a period of intense antisemitism. The story draws on the real 1913 Beilis Case, in which Mendel Beilis was accused of ritual murder and later acquitted.
The novel won both the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1967 National Book Award for Fiction. The Pulitzer recognition was notable because the book was set outside the United States, even though the award’s traditional wording preferred fiction dealing with American life.
Readers sometimes confuse The Fixer with Malamud’s earlier novels The Natural and The Assistant. The Fixer was also adapted into a 1968 film starring Alan Bates as Yakov Bok.