Four-Finger Singer and His Late Wife, Kate: A Novel of Life, Death & Baseball - Softcover

Hittner, Arthur D

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0998981044 ISBN 13: 9780998981048

Publisher: Apple Ridge Fine Arts, 2019

Synopsis

In the tradition of W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe (Field of Dreams) comes a darkly comic novel of life, love, death, and baseball. The only son of overachieving parents, Jake Singer goes from left-handed Little League legend to pro baseball prospect at Stanford. When a freak accident involving mob enforcers and a case of mistaken identity interrupts his budding career, he retreats to law school ("I'm not sure what's worse: having your index finger forcibly amputated by a mob goon or spending three years at Harvard Law School"). Years later in Cambridge, he meets Kate, lately arrived from Iowa, a perky twenty-year-old waitress with a secret past. An unlikely romance blossoms into an unlikely marriage--one quickly plagued by a parade of blunders and revelations. Haunted by her missteps and in the throes of leaving her husband, Kate suffers a catastrophic rendezvous with a runaway truck. While Jake finds solace in an improbable return to baseball, Kate transcends her sudden, tragic death, resolving to redeem herself posthumously, interceding in her widower's life in a well-intentioned but often hilarious campaign to ensure his success on the ball field and in the bedroom.

About this title

Review:

"Hittner's hit it out of the park with this droll, smart baseball romance. . . . Frothily darkly comic, Four-Finger Singer And His Late Wife, Kate is a perfect end-of-summer read."  Christine Wald-Hopkins, Arizona Daily Star

"Four-Finger Singer And His Late Wife, Kate" is a not-to-miss novel of 2019.  Once again, Hittner threatens to steal the top of my favorite books of the year list."  The Uncorked Librarian

"I enjoyed it... It's light, funny, a page-turner... Hittner does a nice job in presenting this fast-moving story of love, regret, and devotion to the game, despite the odds."  Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf

"As with all the most engaging baseball fiction . . . I simply could not put this book down until I'd raced to the end." Mike Shannon, Spitball Magazine

"Five stars - beautifully written, imaginative, a delight to read."  John Pearce, author of Treasure of Saint-Lazare, Last Stop: Paris and Finding Pegasus. 

About this edition

• Publisher: Apple Ridge Fine Arts
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0998981044
• ISBN 13: 9780998981048
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286