"A subtle, sensitive, beautifully written story." --Time

Set in Illinois in the 1920s, William Maxwell's serenely observed yet deeply affecting novel traces the evolution of the unusual bond between two very different boys. Lymie Peters is thin, flat-chested, inept at sports, and a straight-A student. Spud Latham is an extrovert, physically everything that Lymie would like to be, with a streak of the unruly in his nature. Their friendship, which they do not think about but merely accept the way they accept the fact that one day follows another, lasts through high school and into college--until Spud falls in love. When he mistakes the girl's fondness for Lymie and Lymie's for her for something more, his distrust is impenetrable. And although the resulting rift is in part Lymie's doing, it proves to be more than he can bear.

With the keen eye for emotional nuance for which Maxwell is renowned, The Folded Leaf lays bare the heartbreaking aftermath of devotion and betrayal and the momentous passage from adolescence to adulhood.