The Other

Set in Seattle in 1972, two teenage boys are standing at the start line of an 800m race. Neil Countryman is from the public high school: he slumps at his desk all day and gets high in the park at lunchtime. John William Barry is an earnest, fiery young man, and his family background is one of material wealth and emotional deprivation. As John William wins the race by a hair's breadth, their lives collide for the very first time, and it is the beginning of a friendship that is both fraught and intimate. A moving tale about the mixed blessings that friendship can bring, THE OTHER is an extraordinary novel from a masterful storyteller.