In the Garden of the North American Martyrs Stories

<b>A collection from the Story Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award winner and author of <i>This Boy's Life, </i>"a writer of the highest order" ( <i>Los Angeles Times</i>).</b> <br> 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. <br> 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 <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> called "one of the most impressive debuts in recent memory." <br> "Tobias Wolff is a captivating, brilliant writer, one of the best we've got." —Annie Dillard <br> "A masterful storyteller, a natural raconteur." —Michiko Kakutani <br> "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