In the Garden of the North American Martyrs Deluxe Edition: Stories

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.

The debut title in Ecco's the art of the Story Series—a collection of twelve short works of fiction that showcase Tobias Wolff's extraordinary craft

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.

“Read Tobias Wolff...This is one of the most impressive debuts in recent memory.” - San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Tobias Wolff is a captivating, brilliant writer, one of the best we’ve got.” - Annie Dillard

“[Wolff’s] ironic dialog, misfit heroes, and haphazard events play beautifully off the undercurrent drift of the searching inner mood which wins over in the end.” - Chicago Tribune Books

“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

“One of the strongest short story collections to appear in recent years.” - Joyce Carol Oates

“Wolff’s vision is so acute and his talent so refined that none of [the stories] seem sketchy...[They] provoke our amazed appreciation.” - New York Times Book Review