by PhilLaMarche (Author)
In this taut and powerful novel, a young teenager is confronted by a terrible moral dilemma following a firearms accident at his home. Coerced by his mother to lie about his role in the incident, he finds he has nonetheless earned the admiration of a sinister group of boys at his school - calling themselves 'American Youth', they subscribe to a twisted notion of traditional, puritanical values. As he gets sucked into their orbit, and entangled with the girlfriend of the group's leader, he struggles to hold on to a sense of right and wrong. Set in a New England town riven by social and ideological tensions - as newcomers encroach on an old rural culture - this is a classic portrait of a boy's rites of passage in an America ill at ease with itself.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Edition: 1st Paperback printing
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 20 Mar 2008
ISBN 10: 0340938048
ISBN 13: 9780340938041
Book Overview: A contemporary American classic - the gripping story of a moral dilemma which gives a profound insight into modern America
Phil LaMarche was born in New Hampshire. He received an MFA from Syracuse University, has taught fiction at Colgate and Syracuse Universities, and spends his summers working as a rescue kayaker. Phil LaMarche has had stories published in magazines and in the Robert Olen Butler Prize Story Anthology, one of which has been made into a film. He is 30 and lives in Syracuse, New York.