This Boy's Life is a
memoir by American author
Tobias Wolff first published in 1989. It describes the author's adolescence as he wanders the
continental United States with his travelling mother. The first leg of their journey takes them from
Florida to
Utah, where Mom, fleeing an abusive partner, hopes to get rich quick finding
uranium. Eventually Wolff's mother becomes involved with Dwight Hansen (see below), and they settle in
Concrete, Washington, north of
Seattle, a place with plenty of natural beauty and, in their case, more than its share of personal desolation.