A coming of age novel set in an American public school where the boys compete to write a masterpiece worthy of winning an audience with Ernest Hemingway. A voyage of discovery tales place as battle amongst the boys commences.
May 2010 Guest Editor John Boyne on Tobias Wolff...
Whenever I want a quick fix of writerly brilliance, I open Our Story Begins, Wolff’s collected stories. Always surprising, always moving, each story is the work of a master. His novel Old School is a brilliant tale of young aspiring writers in a New England school.
At one prestigious American public school, the boys like to emphasise their democratic ideals - the only acknowledged snobbery is literary snobbery. Once a term, a big name from the literary world visits and a contest takes place. The boys have to submit a piece of writing and the winner receives a private audience with the visitor. But then it is announced that Hemingway, the boys' hero, is coming to the school. The competition intensifies, and the morals the school and the boys pride themselves on - honour, loyalty and friendship - are crumbling under the strain. Only time will tell who will win and what it will cost them.
'Think Dead Poets' Society crossed with The Catcher in the Rye... a beautifully crafted all-American coming-of-age tale Esquire
'This is the kind of novel that endures - wise, clever and written with immense heart' Observer
'Exceptionally good ... comparable to the work of Philip Roth. This reviewer was tempted to send Wolff a fan letter' Blake Morrison, Sunday Telegraph
'A wonderful, subtle novel' Geoff Dyer, Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph
Author
About Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff is the author of seven previous books and the editor of The Vintage Book of American Short Stories and other anthologies. Among his honors are the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award, both for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He lives in Northern California and teaches at Stanford University.
