Forlaget skriver om denne boka:

Bigger Thomas, living in one rat-infested room with his family, refuses to accept, like his mother or his girlfriend, the panaceas of religion or whisky. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime. Bigger finally realises his full individuality only through the confrontation of death.