Bernard Malamud

An average baseball player comes out of seemingly nowhere to become a legendary player with almost divine talent.

In Czarist Russia, unjustly jailed Jewish handyman tries to get out. (IMDB)

Morris Mishkin is a elderly religious Jew in New York. His wife Fanny is very ill. He's a tailor, but he can't work because his back has given out. He doesn't even have enough money for Fanny's medicine. Finally, a black fellow appears from nowhere in the Mishkin kitchen. He says he's an angel from God, sent to help Mishkin. The black angel is even Jewish, named Alex Levine? But will Morris believe in the angel? And can the angel perform the miracle that he promises? (imdb)