Voices of a Summer Day. Bread on the Waters

Irwin Shaw has earned a reputation as one of the most popular American writers of the 20th century, a writer who managed to perfectly combine engaging intrigue with sharp social commentary, and the works included in this collection vividly demonstrate... this author's skill.
 
One day, while watching his son’s baseball game, the hero of the novel “Voices of a Summer Day,” Benjamin Fedrov, is immersed in memories of his own youth, when he played baseball himself. A youth that cannot be called carefree, as it was marked not only by first love and great hopes but also by the Great Depression, World War II, and other harsh trials. 
 
In the novel “Bread on the Waters,” the characters will have to realize that good deeds do not always pay off generously. The peaceful and measured life of the close-knit but poor Strand family is disrupted on the day when the youngest daughter brings home a man who was attacked by bullies on the street.