The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Generally seen as Steinbeck's greatest novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) became a major Hollywood film within a year, cementing his status as one of the most significant American writers of the mid-twentieth century. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 'for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.