The Lost Tribes of the Alleghenies is a darkly comic coming
of age novel that takes place in that part of Pennsylvania
memorably described as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with
Alabama in between. Lost Tribes takes place during a 1970s
spring, between the final taping of the Scholastic Quiz
championship, when Geoff, a high school junior and captain
of the team, blows the final question, and the public broadcast
ten days later, when he will become a public laughing stock.
As if it isn’t bad enough being a member of a small Jewish
community in a Pennsylvania mill town where his mother is
the rabbi’s secretary and knows everyone’s business, Geoff
has to deal with an elderly long-lost cousin who’s full of
secrets, an older sister who’s full of wisdom and wisecracks,
and an irate school board president with a son who’s eager
to replace Geoff as Quiz Team captain.
Set in a time when
drugs were readily available, sex wasn’t too dangerous and
bookstores were either independent or at the mall, Lost
Tribes should appeal to freaks, geeks or anyone who spent
their high school years feeling lost in the wilderness.
Alan Margolis is a writer and produced playwright who lives in Alexandria, VA. He has studied writing at Johns Hopkins University and was awarded a fellowship at the Virginia center for the Creative Arts.
