Collected Fiction: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys, and Werewolves in Their Youth

Book Synopsis: Three extraordinary works by the New York Times–bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Moonglow. A trio of acclaimed masterworks of contemporary fiction by multiple award-winning author Michael Chabon, hailed by the Washington Post Book World as “a young American Nabokov.” The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: Michael Chabon’s “astonishing” debut (The New York Times) follows Art Bechstein, a man still too young to know what he wants. He only knows what he doesn’t want: the life of his money-laundering father. During the summer after graduation he’s finding his own way with brilliant and seductive new friends—erudite Arthur Lecomte, the confounding and mercurial Phlox, and a poetry-reciting biker who pulls Art inevitably back into his father’s mobbed-up world. Wonder Boys: Grady Tripp’s first novel made him a literary star. Seven years later, he’s a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but alienated student named James Leer. During one lost weekend at a writing festival with Leer and debauched editor Terry Crabtree, Tripp finally confronts the wreckage of his past in a “wise, wildly funny” (Chicago Tribune) reckoning with the self-destructive decisions of his life. Werewolves in Their Youth: An indelible cast of characters finds themselves at crossroads in this astonishing collection of short fiction. A young misfit fails to protect his best friend from the scorn of their classmates; a kleptomaniac real estate agent leads an unhappy couple on a disastrous house tour; and a heartbroken grifter finds his ex-girlfriend’s grandmother is both an easy mark and a source of redemption. “When you read these stories, it may strike you how seldom you come across really beautiful writing” (USA Today).