Cuban Prospect - Softcover

Shawver, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585675067 ISBN 13: 9781585675067

Publisher: Overlook Press, 2004

Synopsis

With compassionate intensity and great heart, Brian Shawver, in his powerful debut novel, tells the story of Dennis Birch, a 34-year old failed major league ball player turned minor league scout whose field of dreams has always been baseball. No longer a candidate for baseball greatness himself--if he ever was--Dennis accepts the challenge of smuggling a hot right-handed pitcher out of Cuba in the hope that promoting the greatness of another will somehow confer a small, manageable portion of it on himself. Birch's innocent belief in the rightness of his mission blinds him to some of the realities of it, and what seems at first to be a straight road to glory and his name on a plaque in Cooperstown, leads him into dangerous, sordid, and morally complex waters. As becomes excruciatingly clear, Fidel Castro's Cuba is much further from the Florida Keys than the miles marked on a map.

About this title

Review:

"A nervy debut . . . of madcap and morality . . . a 'Heart of Darkness' set in the bowels of the major-league farm system."

aDeeply felt and compelling... informed with a moral passion not so often found today. The game of baseball is convincingly used as the background for games of a more terrible kind.a(Barry Unsworth) aA nervy debut... of madcap and morality... a aHeart of Darknessa set in the bowels of the major-league farm system.a ("Chicago Tribune")

Deeply felt and compelling... informed with a moral passion not so often found today. The game of baseball is convincingly used as the background for games of a more terrible kind. (Barry Unsworth) A nervy debut... of madcap and morality... a Heart of Darkness set in the bowels of the major-league farm system. ("Chicago Tribune")

?Deeply felt and compelling... informed with a moral passion not so often found today. The game of baseball is convincingly used as the background for games of a more terrible kind.?(Barry Unsworth) A nervy debut... of madcap and morality... a ?Heart of Darkness? set in the bowels of the major-league farm system.? ("Chicago Tribune")

About the Author:

Brian Shawver earned an MFA from the University of Iowa WritersÂ’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award. He grew up in Kansas City and currently lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts where he teaches English. This is his first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1585675067
• ISBN 13: 9781585675067
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224