Most of Malamud's works focus on the problems of the Jews. A New Life, his third novel, also has a Jewish hero. The Fixer, partially based on history, is set in the final years of Czarist Russia when anti-Semitism was part of the government's policy. The leading character, Yakov Bok, is arrested and tortured for allegedly making a blood sacrifice of a Christian child. Despite this, during his two years of imprisonment, he becomes a wiser and stronger human being.

The reader might find Malamud's short stories equally interesting. Some critics have maintained that Malamud is a better short story writer than a novelist. The Magic Barrel, his first collection of stories, won the National Book Award in 1959. The title story blends realistic details with fantasy touches something like the "magic realism" made famous by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his One Hundred Years of Solitude.