The Art of Fielding

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.

Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 09/01/2011
Pages: 528
Weight: 1.7lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.50w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9780316126694

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


Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist
Award: Indies Choice Book Awards - Honor Book
Award: Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - Honorable Mention
Award: Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award - Winner


Review Citation(s):
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

About the Author
Chad Harbach grew up in Wisconsin, and graduated from Harvard in 1997. He was a Henry Hoyns Fellow at the University of Virginia, where he received an MFA in Fiction in 2004. He is currently a co-editor of n+1, which he cofounded, and lives in Virginia.