The Art of Fielding

The Art of Fielding is a novel by the American writer Chad Harbach, published in 2011. It is his first novel, and it was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and appeared on several end-of-year lists.

Henry Skrimshander comes from South Dakota and is short and unmuscular, and he has an unusual gift for fielding. He is spotted playing in a summer league by Mike Schwartz, a student at Westish College in Wisconsin, who persuades the college to take him and takes it upon himself to turn the boy into a player.

By Henry's third year he is drawing attention from professional scouts and the team's prospects rest on him. Mike, meanwhile, has put his own future to one side in order to make Henry's possible, the college president Guert Affenlight has fallen in love in a way that is going to cost him, his daughter Pella has come back to the town after leaving a marriage, and Henry's roommate, a teammate named Owen, is caught up in something of his own. One bad throw sets all of them off course, and the novel follows the season and the year that follow from it.