About this item
"Philip Beard's Swing is a novel to be savored." -Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants and Ape House John Kostka is three feet tall but larger than life, moving through the world on gloved hands and powerful arms as if on a set of parallel bars. Henry Graham is a ten year-old boy whose father has just left home for good. When the two meet at a downtown bus stop, all they seem to have in common is their love of the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. But that is enough to begin a life-long friendship that, eventually, enables both men to confront old enemies and heal old wounds. Philip Beard's third and most accomplished novel swings between two narratives the way John Kostka swings through life. The result is a multifaceted meditation on childhood heroes, the beauty of baseball and the power of love to heal a family in crisis.
About the Author
is a recovering attorney and award-winning author of which was a Book Sense Pick, a Borders Original Voices selection, and was named by the American Library Association's "Booklist" as one of its Ten Best First Novels of the year. It has enjoyed a second life being taught in high school classrooms across the country and is currently being developed as a feature film. His latest novel, , centered around an unlikely friendship between a 10 year-old boy and a legless Korean War veteran, recently received the Praise for "Philip Beard's is a novel to be savored" , New York Times Bestselling author of ???¦at once heartbreaking, uplifting and emotionally resonant. In a word, it??s beautiful. "??It wouldn??t be fair or accurate to call a sports book. It??s too rare for that. ???Every character:the absent father, the troubled sister, the mysterious wonder that is John Kostka:feels alive due to Beard??s skillfully simple prose and dialogue. With , Beard has hit it out of the park. ? ??...just about perfect. ?Praise for ??Like The Lovely Bones, it is a piercing look at how a family recovers from a devastating loss. Everything about this moving, powerful debut rings true. ??? (starred review) ??Dear Zoe is an almost flawless novel of self-discovery and redemption. It is the sort of book that a generation can call ??theirs,?? a book that captures the trials of adolescence and the aching numbness of America in the aftermath of 9/11. ? ?? ??The whole novel rings with truth. By the end of it, we??re meditating on the ideas of loss and redemption, the ways in which personal tragedies get absorbed into larger ones, but neverobliterated, never forgotten. ???
