This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

John Marshall Tanner seems to court adversity. While struggling to recuperate from a near-fatal gunshot wound, he meets Rita Lombardi, a fellow hospital patient who works among the strawberry pickers in California's Salinas Valley. When Tanner tries to contact Rita after her release, he discovers she has been brutally murdered. Suddenly, rumors abound that Rita was a revolutionary leader intent on bringing reform to the union in a town where both...

Translation of: Of mice and men.