Tom Wolfe’s Novel New Novel: For Your Ears Only

NEW YORK —  Tom Wolfe has come out with his first work of fiction in a decade. Don’t clean off your reading glasses, though.

Crank up the tape deck or the CD player.

In a surprise move, the author of “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “The Right Stuff” has released his satiric novella “Ambush at Fort Bragg” exclusively on audio.

“Ambush at Fort Bragg,” recited in an assortment of dialects by Oscar-nominated actor (and Wolfe fan) Edward Norton, is now in stores.

Bantam Doubleday Dell president and publisher Jenny Frost said Friday that Wolfe wanted his next major print work to be his next novel.

In truth, “Ambush” has already appeared in print. It was serialized last year in two issues of Rolling Stone magazine.

Wolfe, whose last book was 1987’s “Bonfire,” acknowledged in a statement that “Ambush at Fort Bragg” could turn up in print again. But he said the “innovative opportunity to publish ‘Ambush’ in audio now” and the “choice of Edward Norton to perform it” convinced him.

“Ambush” does for TV journalism what “Bonfire” did for Wall Street, skewering it mercilessly.

Frost said it is too soon to determine if the audio version is selling at the level of Wolfe’s print novels.

The three-hour novella is available on three CDs or four cassettes and carries a suggested price of $21.95, comparable to most new novels.