The Art of Fielding

The Art of FieldingA disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed tale about love, life, and baseball, praised by the New York Times as "wonderful a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting." Named one of the year's best books by the New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, Kansas City Star, Richmond Times Dispatch, and

A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed tale about love, life, and baseball, praised by the New York Times as "wonderful...a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting."

Named one of the year's best books by the New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, Kansas City Star, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Time Out New York. 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.
Henry's 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, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's 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 commitment -- to oneself and to others.

"First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." --Jonathan Franzen

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 09/07/2011
ISBN: 9780316126694
Pages: 512
Weight: 1.70lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.50w x 1.50d
Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner
Award: Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award - Winner
Award: Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - Honorable Mention
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist
Award: Indies Choice Book Awards - Honor Book

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 07/25/2011
Library Journal 04/15/2011 pg. 68
New Yorker (The) 09/12/2011 pg. 81
Men's Journal 09/01/2011 pg. 40
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2011
Library Journal 09/01/2011 pg. 99
Entertainment Weekly 09/16/2011 pg. 13
Booklist 09/01/2011 pg. 34
New York Times Book Review 09/11/2011 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 09/18/2011 pg. 28
People Weekly 09/26/2011 pg. 66
New York Times Book Review 09/25/2011 pg. 30
Entertainment Weekly 10/07/2011 pg. 77
Shelf Awareness 09/09/2011
Entertainment Weekly 11/25/2011 pg. 76
Shelf Awareness 08/23/2011
Kirkus Best Books 11/15/2011 pg. 2065
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/04/2011 pg. 24
New Yorker (The) 12/19/2011 pg. 139
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2012 pg. 8
Booklist Ed Choice Adu Bk YA's 01/01/2012 pg. 10
Entertainment Weekly 02/03/2012 pg. 29
Entertainment Weekly 05/04/2012 pg. 19
BookPage 09/01/2011

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 147967 / Art of Fielding
Reading Level: 5.9 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 24