Patrimony, a true story, touches the emotions as strongly a anything Philip Roth has ever written. Philip Roth watches as his eighty-six-year-old father - famous for his vigour, his charm, and his repertoire of Newark recollection - battles with the brain tumour that will kill him. The son, full of love, anxiety and dread, accompanies his father through each fearful stage of his final ordeal, and, as he does so, discloses the survivalist tenacity that has distinguished his father's long, stubborn engagement with life.