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The Art of Fielding

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What to expect

‘Sensational’ OBSERVER

‘Terrific’ JONATHAN FRANZEN

‘Exceptional’ GUARDIAN

‘Pure fun’ JOHN IRVING

‘Outstanding’ THE TIMES

A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed debut novel of love, life and baseball.

Henry Skrimshander, a shy, small-town kid, arrives at Westish College with a talent for baseball that borders on genius. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five very different people are suddenly upended.

Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. Owen, Henry’s charismatic roommate, becomes caught up in secret that jeopardises everything. Mike, his best friend, realises he has championed Henry’s career at the expense of his own. Pella Affenlight returns to Westish after her marriage falls apart, determined to start a new life. Only to find that her father, the college president, has fallen desperately in love himself.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, all five are forced to confront the hopes, anxieties and secrets that they so hoped to keep at bay.

‘Irresistible … a richly peopled world to which you long to return when you put the book down’ GUARDIAN

‘Wonderful … a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘A page-turning, beguiling and wonderfully warm-hearted read’ SUNDAY TIMES

Critics Review

‘Terrifically engaging … a page-turning, beguiling and wonderfully warm-hearted read’ Sunday Times
‘Sensational and utterly gripping. Harbach has created characters who entrance: vulnerable, beautifully drawn and likeable’ Observer
‘Charming, warm-hearted, addictive … a big American novel of the old school’ Guardian
‘A magical, melancholy story about friendship and the coming of age that marks the debut of an immensely talented writer’ New York Times
‘Terrific … left a little hole in my life the way a really good book will’ Jonathan Franzen, author of Crossroads
‘Pure fun … as if the other Fielding had a hand in it – as if Tom Jones were about baseball and college life’ John Irving, author of A Prayer for Owen Meany
‘An intricate, poised, tingling debut … leaves you longing, lingering, and a baseball convert long after the last page’ Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife
‘Dazzles and bewitches and inspires, until you nearly lose your breath from the enjoyment and satisfaction’ James Patterson, author of Return of the Spider
‘One of the best American debuts in decades … Astonishingly good. I defy [readers] not to be engrossed by this tale’ Daily Telegraph
‘Very good indeed. Harbach captures precisely the strangely becalmed grace that sets sportsmen like Henry apart’ Independent
‘The Art of Fielding emerges fully formed, a world unto itself. Harbach writes with a tender, egoless virtuosity’ GQ
‘A heart-swelling read about youth and success and security and what happens when they all go away … told with kindness and good humour’ Esquire
‘Ostensibly about baseball, The Art of Fielding is, of course, about much more than that: ambition, desire, failure and, above all, friendship … wonderfully entertaining’ Tatler
‘Embodied in the novel’s warm, expansive prose is a sense of big-heartedness and optimism’ TLS
Author Chad Harbach
Narrator Holter Graham
Duration 15 hours and 53 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780007466573
Format Audiobook
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Genre Baseball, Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Family life fiction, Humorous fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Sports fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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