Frankie Machine, a veteran of the Second World War, returns to Chicago's Northwest Side with a morphine habit. Nicknamed the 'kid with the golden arm', he is an aspiring drummer by day and an illicit card-dealer by night. When he finally sees a chance for redemption, hard work and success, Frankie learns that the demons that chase him are not quite ready to let go.
With honesty and compassion, Nelson Algren's critically acclaimed novel probes the lives of the displaced and dispossessed of post-war America.
The Man With the Golden Arm won the inaugural National Book Award for Fiction and was adapted into a major motion picture starring Frank Sinatra.
