num_pages: 212
description: This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff does a masterful job of re-creating the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. His various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.
language: English
title: This Boy's Life
titlecomplete: This Boy's Life
genres: Classics, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, Biography, School, Audiobook, Literature, Memoir, Coming Of Age, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 28901
awards: awardedAt: 631180800000
name: Ambassador Book Award
category: Autobiography, awardedAt: 599644800000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Biography, awardedAt: 599644800000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Biography/Autobiography
publisher: New Haven: Atlantic, 1989