John Cheever (1912–1982) is a classic of American literature of the 20th century. First published in 1975, Falconer is a book about the journey of the human soul, full of doubts and fears, pride and humility, anger and mercy. The hero of the novel, Ezekiel Farragut, is sentenced to prison for the murder of his brother. Finding himself in a penal colony, he is forced to look for those moral qualities in himself that would allow him to survive in this rough, cruel world. Cheever writes about suffering and redemption, about faith in the miraculous resurrection of the soul, about the new birth of a person doomed to death.