![The Art of Fielding | [Chad Harbach]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TxJrtCSPL._SL175_.jpg "The Art of Fielding | [Chad Harbach]")
The Art of Fielding
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- Regular Price :£13.99Special Offer: Learn how to get this FREE !
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Average Customer Rating
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LENGTH15 hrs and 54 mins
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RELEASE DATE19/01/2012
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AUDIO FORMATS
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Program TypeAudiobook
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PUBLISHER
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Publisher's Summary
A wonderful, warm novel from a major new American voice. In The Art of Fielding, we see young men who know that their four years on the baseball diamond at Westish College are all that remain of their sporting careers. Only their preternaturally gifted fielder, Henry Skrimshander, seems to have the chance to keep his dream - and theirs, vicariously - alive, until a routine throw goes disastrously off course, and the fates of five people are upended.
After his throw threatens to ruin his roommate Owen's future, Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his; while Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. Keeping a keen eye on them all, college president Guert Affenlight, a long time bachelor, falls unexpectedly and dangerously in love, much to the surprise of his daughter, Pella, who has returned to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.
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.
©2012 Chad Harbach (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
What the Critics Say
"Reading The Art of Fielding is like watching a hugely gifted young shortstop: you keep waiting for the errors, but there are no errors. First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." (Jonathan Franzen)
"Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding is one of those rare novels - like Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh or John Irving's The World According to Garp - that seems to appear out of nowhere, and then dazzles and bewitches and inspires, until you nearly lose your breath from the enjoyment and satisfaction, as well as the unexpected news-blast that the novel is very much alive and well." (James Patterson)
"I gave myself over completely and scarcely paused for meals. Like all successful works of literature The Art of Fielding is an autonomous universe, much like the one we inhabit although somehow more vivid." (Jay McInerney)
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What Members Say
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"Get this its a great listen"
This book will be a classic a great listen a book you will go back to time and time again.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful -
Sarah GLASGOW, United Kingdom 19/07/2012 Member Since 2009
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"Not just baseball"
I enjoyed this. As the title suggests it was more than just a sports story. Henry is living a quiet life in a farm town, when Mike recruits him to his college. For a small town farm boy college is a real eye opener, his room-mate is gay, he is socially inept and until the football season finishes, he is left on his own awaiting his one friend Mike, to take him under his wing.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful -
Aspiring Bookworm South Gloucestershire 14/04/2013 Member Since 2007
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- 6
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"A surprising book."
I really enjoyed this book even though I knew nothing about baseball and wasn't interested in it. It is a story of what can happen when one realises personal greatness but how inexperience and naivety can impede its progression. The characters are very real and the human stories both tragic and believable. There are many people's individual lives here which all implicate on each other. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it and I would recommend trying it.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful -
"The Art of Fielding"
I really enjoyed this book. From the first page it held me until the last. The characters are believable and one could relate to them in a real way. I highly recommend this book.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful -
P Birmingham, United Kingdom 02/10/2012 Member Since 2006
paul34171
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"intriguing"
written in a similar style to John Irving - quirky and a fabulous listen. Great characterisation and a roller coaster plot
0 of 0 people found this review helpful -
"Outstanding in his field"
The narration brings this study of life, to life. A important book, the best of the new millennium from the US.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful