"A classic of the genre."--New York Times The 30th anniversary edition of Tobias Wolff's extraordinary memoir (SF Chronicle), now with a new introduction by the author. Thirty years ago Tobias Wolff wrote a memoir that changed the form. The "unforgettable" (Time) This Boy's Life is the story of the young, tough-on-the-outside but vulnerable Toby Wolff. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother travel from Florida to Utah to a small village in Washington state, with many stops along the way. As each place doesn't quite work out, they pick up to find somewhere new. In the story of their journey, Wolff masterfully recreates the frustrations, cruelties, and joys of adolescence and presents a deeply poignant exploration of memory, dreams, and how we create a self.

Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor and mordant wit that made This Boy's Life a modern classic.

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.

The protagonist of Tobias Wolff's shrewdly--and at times devastatingly--observed first novel is a boy at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his more privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants more than anything on earth to become a writer. But to do that he must first learn to tell the truth about himself.
The agency of revelation is the school literary contest, whose winner will be awarded an audience with the most legendary writer of his time. As the fever of competition infects the boy and his classmates, fraying alliances, exposing weaknesses, Old School""explores the ensuing deceptions and betrayals with an unblinking eye and a bottomless store of empathy. The result is further evidence that Wolff is an authentic American master.

A memoir of a young boy's unusual travels with his mother. The author recreates his boyhood experiences, relating how he and his mother travelled throughout the United States, and tracing his experiences and changes from young boy to manhood against the background of a violent and wildly optimistic America.

Our Story Begins combines twenty-one of Tobias Wolff's classic stories with ten potent new works, spanning three decades and confirming Wolff's status as a master of the genre. These stories of war, morality, frustration, loneliness and love trace a path through the everyday and the extraordinary, shedding a poignant yet hopeful light on American life and the intricate truths of human nature.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) overturned the dramatic conventions of his day and laid the groundwork for contemporary approaches to directing and acting. Now, for the first time, the full lyricism, humor, and pathos of his greatest plays are available to an English-speaking audience. Marina Brodskaya's new translations of "Ivanov," "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "Three Sisters," and "The Cherry Orchard" not only surpass in accuracy all previous translations, but also provide the first complete English text of the plays, restoring passages entirely omitted by her predecessors. This much-needed volume renders Chekhov in language that will move readers and theater audiences alike, making accessible his wordplay, unstated implications, and innovations. His characters' vulnerabilities, needs, and neuroses--their humanity--emerge through their genuine, self-absorbed conversations. The plays come to life as never before and will surprise readers with their vivacity, originality, and relevance.

1935, Bacon County, Georgia. The bite of the Great Depression was beginning to be felt in the rest of America, but its teeth had been in Bacon County for years. Here one of America's most original storytellers, Harry Crews, was born in a sharecropper's cabin at the end of a dirt road. A Childhood is his memoir of that time - his first years of life - and that place: the poor soil and the sickness, the blood feuds and the faith healers, the ghosts and the shopping catalogues. A profound vision of the rural South that resounds with the violence of poverty and the tenderness of kinship, A Childhood is a true American classic.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) overturned the dramatic conventions of his day and laid the groundwork for contemporary approaches to directing and acting. Now, for the first time, the full lyricism, humor, and pathos of his greatest plays are available to an English-speaking audience. Marina Brodskaya's new translations of "Ivanov," "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "Three Sisters," and "The Cherry Orchard" not only surpass in accuracy all previous translations, but also provide the first complete English text of the plays, restoring passages entirely omitted by her predecessors. This much-needed volume renders Chekhov in language that will move readers and theater audiences alike, making accessible his wordplay, unstated implications, and innovations. His characters' vulnerabilities, needs, and neuroses--their humanity--emerge through their genuine, self-absorbed conversations. The plays come to life as never before and will surprise readers with their vivacity, originality, and relevance.

Spirituality, sex, violence, guilt, and morality in stories that are filled with a generosity and tenderness that distinguishes the masterful short fiction writer, Andre Dubus. This third volume in the Collected Short Stories and Novellas by Andre Dubus includes the four novellas and two stories collected in The Last Worthless Evening, the novella, Voices from the Moon, plus previously uncollected stories—all with an introduction by Tobias Wolff. “It’s divorce that did it,” his father had said last night. So begins Voices from the Moon, the 126-page novella that takes place over the course of a single day and alternates between the viewpoints of Richie Stowe, a serious twelve-year-old who plans to become a priest, and the five other members of his family. The stories from The Last Worthless Evening range further than in any previous Dubus collection: racial tension in the Navy; a detective story homage; a Hispanic shortstop; the unlikely pairing of an eleven-year-old kid and a dangerous Vietnam vet. Finally, this volume includes previously uncollected stories, including work from the mid-1960s and the late 1990s. The earliest story appearing here is “The Cross Country Runner”—first published in the Midwestern University Quarterly in 1966 when Dubus was 30 years old. The final story—the western-themed “Sisters”—is the last piece of fiction Dubus was working on when he died suddenly in 1999 at the age of 63. Collected Short Stories and Novellas by Andre Dubus includes We Don’t Live Here Anymore, The Winter Father, and The Cross Country Runner. All three contain work by an American master, perfect for anyone who loves stories of the human heart and where it can lead us.

To American soldiers in Vietnam, "back in the world" meant America and safety. To Tobias Wolff's characters, Back in the World is where lives that have veered out of control just might become normal again. Unfortunately, the men and women in these gripping, pungent, and wonderfully skewed stories have only the vaguest notion of what normal is. A gentle priest finds himself in a Vegas hotel with a hysterical, sun-burned stranger. A show-biz hopeful undergoes a dubious audition in a hearse speeding across the California desert. An aging soldier is distracted from a night of philandering by a gun-toting neighbor and a suicidal enlisted man. As he moves among these unfortunates, Wolff observes the disparity between their realities and their dreams, in ten stories of exhilarating lucidity and grace.

Stories included are: "The Missing Person," "Say Yes," "The Poor Are Always With Us," "Sister," "Soldier's Joy," "Desert Breakdown," "Our Story Begins," "Leviathan," and "The Rich Brother."

"Terrific...The magic of his fiction cannot be explained. It is the ancient art of the master storyteller."--Tim O'Brien

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2007 im Fachbereich Politik - Internationale Politik - Region: Russland, Lander der ehemal. Sowjetunion, Note: 2,0, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 28 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Seit dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion 1991 beschreitet Russland den schwierigen und muheseligen Weg der Transformation von einem diktatorischen, planwirtschaftlichen Staat in eine prasidiale Marktwirtschaft. Die Verfassung von 1993 bezeichnete Russland als demokratischen, foderalen Rechtsstaat mit republikanischer Regierungsform und legte einen Grundrechtskatalog fest." Beim ersten Lesen des Zitats entsteht der Eindruck, dass Russland nach dem Zerfall des Ostblocks gute Fortschritte in Richtung Demokratie macht. Die Wirtschaft wird nicht mehr zentral gelenkt, es wurde eine Verfassung erlassen, in der Russland schon als demokratischer und foderaler Rechtsstaat bezeichnet wird. Dies ist aber definitiv nicht der Fall: Russland hat die Konsolidierung nicht geschafft und besitzt eine defekte Demokratie. Um diese These begrunden zu konnen, wird wie folgt vorgegangen. In dieser Hausarbeit wird die Systemtransformation eines autoritaren hin zu einem demokratischen Systems vorgestellt. Dies geschieht zunachst in einem theoretischen Teil, in dem die Grundaspekte und Begriffe definiert und erlautert werden. Zunachst wird der Begriff Demokratie nochmals definiert, um anschliessend eine defekte Demokratie klassifizieren zu konnen. Anschliessend werden autoritare und totalitare Regime erklart. Als nachstes werden die Begriffe der Transformation naher gebracht. Diese sind in der zeitlich korrekten Abfolge erklart, um verstehen zu konnen, wie eine Systemtransformation zustande kommen kann. Fortfolgend werden vier Transformationstheorien vorgestellt, die dazu dienen sollen, die Erfolgs- und Misserfolgsbedingungen in sozialen Teilsystemen zu suchen. Als letztes im theoretischen Teil wird die embedded democracy vorgestellt, mit der

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2005 im Fachbereich Politik - Politische Systeme - Historisches, Note: 2,0, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule Aachen (Institut fur Politische Wissenschaft), Veranstaltung: Grundkurs-Tutorium, 26 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Mit der sowjetischen Note vom 27. November 1958 an die drei Westmachte und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD), das sogenannte Berlin Ultimatum" loste Chruschtschow, Erster Sekretar des Zentralkomitees (ZK) der Kommunistischen Partei der Sowjetunion (KpdSU) und Vorsitzender des Ministerrates der UdSSR, am 10. November 1958 die zweite Berlinkrise aus. Die Note beinhaltete, dass die westliche Besatzung Berlins unrechtmassig sei, da ganz Berlin auf dem Territorium der DDR liegt. West-Berlin soll zu einer selbststandigen politischen Einheit und Freien Stadt umgewandelt werden. Ist dies durchgefuhrt, dann ist die DDR auf ihrem Territorium, inklusive aller Verbindungswege nach West-Berlin, souveran. Danach werde es keine Vier-Machte-Kontakte mehr geben. Mit dieser Note unterstutze Chruschtschow Walter Ulbricht, erster Sekretar des ZK in der DDR, mit dessen Rede am 27. Oktober 1958, in der er sagte: Ganz Berlin liegt auf dem Territorium der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Ganz Berlin gehort zum Hoheitsbereich der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik." Nun gilt es zu prufen, ob der Mauerbau ein Resultat eines schwelenden, langanhaltenden Konfliktes zwischen den beiden Supermachten USA und UdSSR war oder ob es sich um eine Kurzschlussreaktion seitens der DDR-Regierung mit Duldung der Sowjetunion handelt. Es muss auch geklart werden, ob die westdeutsche Regierung um Adenauer zu wenig gegen die Teilung Berlins tat oder ob sie wirklich ohnmachtig war. Die These der Arbeit ist, dass die DDR-Regierung den Mauerbau als letzte Chance sah, um deren Untergang zu verhindern aufgrund der starken Republikflucht. Seit der Grundung beider Staaten im Jahre 1949 bis zum Mauerbau im Jahre 1961 verl

Culled from over one hundred prestigious writing programs around the United States and Canada, "Best New American Voices 2000" offers a remarkable panoply of writing talent that showcases the literary stars of tomorrow. Included here are twenty of the finest stories to come out of such programs as Breadloaf, the Sewanee Conference, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the University of Iowa, and the PEN/Prison Writing Committee, as nominated by the directors of those programs. Represented are all facets of North American life, a diverse collection of visions and voices that will satisfy the most exacting of short-story readers. This dynamic collection is must-reading for all fans of innovative, cutting-edge new writing.