The Old World tells of four young male students from a small Massachusetts mill town--all of whom are on the verge of discovering their homosexuality--who are influenced by an eccentric, strong-willed, elderly teacher named Anna Aylmer. Much of the story is set in the present as the boys, now men, deal with AIDS. In Jonathan Strong's capable hands and illuminating prose, what begins as a coming-of-age tale, a sort of serious Auntie Mame, becomes a meditation on history and mortality and underscores the impossibility of truly understanding either. In moving through time and memory The Old World shows how tightly and unexpectedly the past is linked to our present lives.