The Fix­er (1966) is Bernard Mala­mud’s best-known and most acclaimed nov­el — one that makes man­i­fest his roots in Russ­ian fic­tion, espe­cial­ly that of Isaac Babel. 

Set in Kiev in 1911 dur­ing a peri­od of height­ened anti-Semi­tism, the nov­el tells the sto­ry of Yakov Bok, a Jew­ish handy­man blamed for the bru­tal mur­der of a young Russ­ian boy. Bok leaves his vil­lage to try his luck in Kiev, and after deny­ing his Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, finds him­self work­ing for a mem­ber of the anti-Semit­ic Black Hun­dreds Soci­ety. When the boy is found near­ly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hun­dreds accuse the Jews of rit­u­al mur­der. Arrest­ed and impris­oned, Bok refus­es to con­fess to a crime that he did not commit.