Allen & Unwin Ham On Rye book Fiction English Paperback 368 pages

The autobiographical coming-of-age modern classic by one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century.

With introduction by Roddy Doyle'He brought everyone down to earth, even the angels' Leonard CohenCharles Bukowski is one of the greatest authors of the twentieth-century. The autobiographical Ham on Rye is widely considered his finest novel. A classic of American literature, it offers powerful insight into his youth through the prism of his alter-ego Henry Chinaski, who grew up to be the legendary Hank Chinaski of Post Office and Factotum.

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. At the forefront of American counter-culture, his Beat Generation writing is widely celebrated. He was born in Germany in 1920 to an American soldier father and a German mother and was brought to the United States at the age of three. He grew up in Los Angeles and lived there for the majority of his life. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books, including novels such as Factotum and Post Office. He died in 1994 shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.