THE ART OF FIELDING

Chad Harbach

“First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom.” Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections

The star of Westish College baseball team Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. That is until a routine throw goes disastrously wrong, badly injuring a teammate and upending the fates of five people.

Crippled by self-doubt after his throw threatens to ruin his roommate Owen’s career, Henry’s own future starts to slip away; Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry’s best friend, watches his dreams fade as he realizes he has shaped Henry’s career at the expense of his own; college president Guert Affenlight, a widower and long-time bachelor, begins a dangerous and unexpected affair just as his daughter, Pella, returns to Westish to escape an ill-fated marriage and start over.

As their final year together draws closer to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, fears and anxieties; forge new bonds and help one and other face different and uncertain futures.

Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warm-hearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment – to oneself and to others.