The Art of Fielding: A Novel

About this book

A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed tale about love life and baseball. Wonderful ... a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting. The New York Times At Westish College a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course the fates of five people are upended. Henrys fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight a longtime bachelor has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne Henrys gay roommate and teammate becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz the Harpooners team captain and Henrys best friend realizes he has guided Henrys career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight Guerts daughter returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage determined to start a new life. As the season counts down to its climactic final game these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes anxieties and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth The Art of Fielding is an expansive warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits about family and friendship and love and about commitmentto oneself and to others. First novels this complete and consuming come along very very seldom. Jonathan Franzen New York Times bestselling author of Crossroads Named one of 2012s best books by The New York Times NPR The New Yorker The Los Angeles Times The Washington Post The Wall Street Journal Christian Science Monitor Bloomberg The Kansas City Star The Richmond Times-Dispatch and Time Out New York.