num_pages: 336
description: In Paducah, Kentucky, seventeen-year-old Thomas feels as reined in as the mighty Ohio, a river confined by high floodwalls protecting his small Southern hometown. But all boundaries vanish when Thomas experiences first love with Alice, his new history teacher, a woman eight years his senior—and when he meets Shiloh, a misfit vagabond and anarchist who becomes his new role model. Fleeing to rural Vermont, this unlikely trio boldly pursues freedom, intimacy, and seclusion, unfettered by commitments and rules. But a life apart from the world does not ensure a life apart from the past—and for one of them, the past that emerges will threaten tragedy.
language: English
title: The Best People in the World
titlecomplete: The Best People in the World
genres: Novels, Fiction
ratings_count: 193
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Oregon Book Award
category: the Novel
publisher: Harper Perennial