First printing of the first U.S. edition (first published in the U.K. in 1998). Wraps, 13.2 by 20.5 cm, 295 pp. plus 3-page reading group guide. As new. Signed by the author on the title page. De Grazia’s debut novel, “a timeless story about a young man's coming-of-age as well as a stunning portrait of the class and racial tensions that pervade our society.  Alex Verdi is on the lam, fleeing from the police who have arrested his parents on drug charges and want him for questioning. Traveling to Chicago, he joins a multiracial group of anti-Nazi skinheads and embarks on an odyssey that takes him from the city's embattled streets to an Army boot camp to Northwestern's plush campus, and finally lands him amid the horrors of maximum-security prison.” First Edition.