This Boy's Life

25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die

Browse all of the exceptional memoirs that made our list.

Tobias Wolff is a writer’s writer known for tight sentences and inventive plots. This Boy’s Life tells the story of Wolff’s youth spent dodging abusive men with his mother, Rosemary. They leave Florida for Utah, and Utah for Washington. In each place Wolff builds on his persona. In Utah he becomes “Jack.” In Washington, he fakes achievement to secure a spot in an elite East Coast prep school. Jack Wolff is a lovable troublemaker in a bad situation. You root for him as you ache for him. Tobias Wolff’s storytelling, combined with his eventful life, make for an exceptional memoir. Recommended By Britt A., Powells.com

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.

“Wolff’s genius is in his fine storytelling. This Boy’s Life reads and entertains as easily as a novel. Wolff’s writing and timing are superb, as are his depictions of those of us who endured the ‘50s.” The Oregonian

“[This] extraordinary memoir is so beautifully written that we not only root for the kid Wolff remembers, but we also are moved by the universality of his experience.” San Francisco Chronicle

“Wolff writes in language that is lyrical without embellishment, defines his characters with exact strokes and perfectly pitched voices, [and] creates suspense around ordinary events, locating the deep mystery within them.” Los Angeles Times Book Review

Tobias Wolff is the author of two highly acclaimed collections of short stories and a short novel, The Barracks Thief, which won the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award. He lives with his family in upstate New York and teaches at Syracuse University.