NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • Pulitzer Prize winner John Cheever’s classic novel about one eccentric New England family, inspired by the author's own adolescence. The Wapshots have called the quintessential Massachusetts fishing village of St. Botolphs home for eons, but now it is time for the next generation—brothers Moses and Coverly—to go out and see the world.
Moses heads to New York City and, eventually, a remote island in the South Pacific, while his brother travels south to Washington, D.C., and a job “so secret that it can’t be discussed here.” Meanwhile, back in St. Botolphs, their father, Captain Leander, clashes with his fearsome Cousin Honora, who controls the family purse strings.
By turns tragic and deeply funny,
The Wapshot Chronicle is a “richly inventive and vividly told” (
The New York Times Magazine) work of fiction about one very odd family.
Pulitzer Prize-winner John Cheever's National Book Award-winning first novel, finally back in print.
By 1957, John Cheever was already recognized as a writer of superb short stories. But The Wapshot Chronicle, which won the 1958 National Book Award, established him as a major novelist. Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly. Tragic and funny, ribald and splendidly picaresque, The Wapshot Chronicle is a family narrative from one of our finest writers.
Winner of the National Book Award
“Richly inventive and vividly told.” —
The New York Times Magazine“A literary mosaic. . . . A tapestry woven from the threads of emotion, tragedy, comedy. . . . Cheever is a pleasure to read.” —S
an Francisco Chronicle“A brilliantly written novel.” —
Time“Ringing with life.” —
The Guardian 
