A story of a Russian-Jewish immigrant family living on Orchard Street on New York's Lower East Side follows the lives of three generations of Roths, who live together in a crowded tenement
flat, from Manya, the long widowed matriarch and heart of the family to her adored granddaughter Elka, the narrator who chronicles the colorful characters who move in and out of the family's
lives. 20,000 first printing.