Short stories by Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff is the author of seven previous books including The Barracks Thief, for which he won a PEN/Faulkner Award. He is the editor of The Vintage Book of American Short Stories. Among his honors are the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award, both for excellence in the short story and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in northern California and teaches at Stanford University.
Listing 10 stories.
Six days after getting married, a man discovers that his wife has stolen money from their family and friends, leading him to reflect on many other strange behaviors of hers. He ultimately decides that he will stay and spend his life taking the blame for her and smoothing over her mistakes.
A homosexual military sergeant, with no use for his money after his parent’s estrangement, attempts to support the destitute family of a soldier just shipped off to Iraq.
After a drunken night out, a high school English teacher is kidnapped by a strange man. But as she uncovers her abductor’s motivation, the power shifts back in her favor.
After their stay in a rundown boardinghouse, a boy and his mother hunt for an apartment and the boy dreams of a house with a warm fireplace of his own.
After their fighting neighbors wake them up in the middle of the night, a suburban married couple stays up, watching television and dreaming about what their lives could be if only they could break free from the monotony of ritual.
A father and son need to get home by Christmas Eve dinner, but a late departure from the Cascade Mountains and a closed road make the trip home difficult and dangerous.
A misanthrope’s decision to ditch her donuts and weed to go exercise in the park leads her to a near-death experience.
Though most of a prep school's students are away for the long weekend, a few boys stay behind at the dorms and are invited to dinner with a wealthy boy and his stepmother. At the dinner, the stepmother's attitude and appearance are just as alluring as the food, but the wealthy student acts strange and detached the whole evening.
A soldier is mistakenly informed of his estranged mother's death, and though he is aware of the mistake, he chooses to take the opportunity to mend his relationship with her.
Two brothers, one wealthy and one without a stable income, are forced to reunite when the latter decides to leave his job. When a hitchhiker joins them on their drive to the wealthy brother's home, the stranger spins tales that deepen the divisions between the two brothers.