In the Garden of the North American Martyrs

A collection from the Story Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award winner and author of This Boy's Life, 'a writer of the highest order' (Los Angeles Times).Among the characters you'll find in this collection of twelve stories by Tobias Wolff are a teenage boy who tells morbid lies about his home life; a timid professor who, in the first genuine outburst of her life, pours out her opinions in spite of a protesting audience; a prudish loner who gives an obnoxious hitchhiker a ride; and an elderly couple on a golden anniversary cruise who endure the offensive conviviality of the ship's social director.Fondly yet sharply drawn, Wolff's characters stumble over each other in their baffled yet resolute search for the 'right path' in this collection that the San Francisco Chronicle called 'one of the most impressive debuts in recent memory.''Tobias Wolff is a captivating, brilliant writer, one of the best we've got.' -Annie Dillard'A masterful storyteller, a natural raconteur.' -Michiko Kakutani'I have not read a book of stories in years that has given me such a shock of amazement and recognition-and such pleasure.' -Raymond Carver