title: The Abstinence Teacher
author:  Tom Perrotta 
description: <b>Praise for Tom Perrotta and <i>Little Children</i></b>:<br /><br />A <i>New York Times</i>,<i> Los Angeles Times</i>, <i>USA Today</i>, <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, <i>Boston Globe</i> and <i>BookSense</i> bestseller:<br /><br />"Extraordinary . . . at once suspenseful, ruefully funny, and ultimately generous."<br /><i>The New York Times Book Review<br /></i><br />"Perrotta is that rare writer equally gifted at drawing peoples emotional maps . . . and creating sidesplitting scenes. Suburban comedies dont come any sharper."<br /><i>People</i><br /><br />"A virtuoso set of overlapping character studies."<br /><i>The Washington Post</i><br /><br />"A precise and witty evocation of the sweet, mind-numbing routines and everyday marital conflicts . . . an effervescent new work."<br /><i>Entertainment Weekly</i><br /><br />"Perrotta wisely refuses to condescend to the world he satirizes, and his masterful perspective provides the reader with a breezy omniscience over the characters failures in life. The book is disarmingly funny but rueful . . . a brave novel."<br /><i>Esquire<br /><br /></i>"has the same unputdownable quality as <b>Little Children</b>."<br /><i>New York Magazine<br /><br /></i>"Sex education, soccer and Christian fundamentalism make strange bedfellows in Perrotta's shrewd yet compassionate fifth novelRuefully humorous and tenderly understanding of human folly: the most mature, accomplished work yet from this deservedly bestselling author."<br /><i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br /><br />"Tom Perrotta knows his suburbia, and in <b>The Abstinence Teacher</b> he carves out an even larger chunk of his distinct terrainThe book is rife with Perrotta's subtle and satiric humor."<br /><i>Publishers Weekly<br /><br /></i>"Perrotta deals with timely issues by having characters from different camps forced to confront one another. What results from these civilized exchanges, which feel so human in their complexity and confusion, is a more personal, inside view of how such tensions play out."<br /><i>Library Journal</i>
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  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events
  portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are
  used fictitiously.
  
  
  
  
  
  THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER. Copyright © 2007 by Tom Perrotta. All rights reserved.
  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
  without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
  critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175
  Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
  
  
  [www.stmartins.com](http://www.stmartins.com)
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
  
  
  Perrotta, Tom, 1961—
  
  
  The abstinence teacher / Tom Perrotta.—1st ed.
  
  
  p. cm.
  
  
  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35833-4
  
  
  ISBN-10: 0-312-35833-4
  
  
  1\. Sex educators—Fiction. 2. Soccer coaches— Fiction. 3. Evangelists—
  Fiction. 4. Divorced parents—Fiction. 5. Culture conflict—Fiction. 6.
  Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 7. Suburban life—Fiction. 8. 