"A keen, passionate portrait of the author as a poetry-spouting romantic punk torn between literary dreams and his roots in the Bronx... is pure, splendid Shanley: shaggily idealistic and always scratching a philosophical itch underneath jokes and banter." — Davide Cote, “Shanley chooses characters stretched to the breaking point between rage and love… His are characters of obsessive passions who match those passions with hyper-melodic language.” — magazine When a troubled but gifted boy from the South Bronx arrives at a private school in New Hampshire, two faculty members wrestle with how to help him adjust to his new environment. The boy is violent, brilliant, alienated, and on fire with a ferocious loneliness. As with his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, , John Patrick Shanley has drawn on his personal experiences to create an explosive portrait of a young man on the verge of either salvation or destruction. is the author of (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award for Best Play), (Tony nomination for Best Play), , and , among many other plays. He wrote the teleplay for (Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing of a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special) and the screenplays for (Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay) and (Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay).