A collection of twelve short stories that showcases Tobias Wolff's
extraordinary talent, available in a deluxe paperback edition--part of
Ecco's The Art of the Story Series.
In The Garden of the North American Martyrs, Tobias Wolff's first
collection of short fiction, hailed the arrival of a major talent and
the beginning of an acclaimed, bestselling career. In each of these
sharply crafted stories, his characters, drawn from everyday life,
stumble over each other in their baffled yet resolute search for the
"right path." Among the characters in these twelve stories 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 endures the offensive conviviality of the ship's social director.