The Class of 2000

by John Pistelli

Back in the suburbs, it was always autumn… The year is 1999. The Internet is young, the Millennium is coming, and hopes abound for peace and progress in a globalized world. But in the prosperous suburbs of a Pittsburgh still in its post-industrial decline, a fiery tragedy explodes. It begins when a charismatic teacher who has a dangerous habit of trying to save the lives of his students takes in a high-school senior with a catastrophically violent family. The teacher quickly invites his student to join his private and bloody crusade to right the wrongs of the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the teacher's brilliant and nihilistic wife, a frustrated former actress, has her own designs on the young man, intellectual and otherwise. The ensuing conflagration threatens to destroy everyone involved, but as these characters confront the hopes and disorders of an age, a tragic heroism rises from their struggle. A drama about the danger of good intentions and how the dreams and ambitions of a generation went wrong, The Class of 2000 is an impassioned and inventive family saga in the grand tradition of the American novel.

297 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2021

About the author

John Pistelli is from Pittsburgh, PA, and now lives in Minneapolis, MN, where he teaches literature. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Minnesota. His short fiction, poetry, reviews, and essays have appeared in many journals, including Rain Taxi, The Millions, and Five 2 One. He is the author of The Quarantine of St. Sebastian House, Portraits and Ashes, and The Ecstasy of Michaela. Find out more here.