This Boy's Life is a memoir by American author Tobias Wolff first published in 1989. It describes the author's adolescence as he wanders the continental United States with his traveling mother. The first leg of their journey takes them from Florida to Utah, where Mom, fleeing an abusive partner, hopes to get rich quick finding uranium. Eventually Wolff's mother becomes involved with Dwight Hansen, and they settle in Concrete, Washington, north of Seattle, a place with plenty of natural beauty and, in their case, more than its share of personal desolation.