The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

A book about sport. American sport. Baseball. But for all that, it was quite good.

It is long and there's lots of technical bits which I did not understand (bunts, for example) but it is definitely readable even with negligible baseball knowledge (by which I mean zero baseball knowledge and moderate rounders knowledge). The writing is not particularly beautiful or challenging but inoffensive and the plot itself is suprisingly engaging. There's an intreguing sub-plot involving the balance of power in relationships which makes this less obviously a sports novel, although it is not quite developed enough to make this a non-sports novel. This is a bit frustrating but frankly to be expected if you pick up a book called The Art of Fielding with a picture of a baseball and bat on the front cover (because yes, we do all judge). Overall, this is an acceptable book about sport.