First published 2016
Ted Fullilove goes by Mr. Peanut at Yankee Stadium, where he hawks snacks and scribbles notes for his great American novel on yellow legal pads. This Ivy League graduate lives with Goldberg, his battery-powered fish, until news arrives that his estranged father Marty is dying of lung cancer. Ted moves back to his childhood home, where he discovers that his previously absent father wants to reconnect before death. Marty's health rises and falls with the fortunes of his beloved Red Sox. Ted realizes his father might live longer if the Sox keep winning. With help from neighborhood old-timers and Mariana, Marty's Nuyorican grief counselor, Ted creates an elaborate deception. He feeds his father fake news about Red Sox victories, hoping to keep him alive through an imaginary World Series run. The story builds toward October 1978 and Bucky Dent's famous home run that crushed Boston's playoff hopes. This father-son tale explores the stories we tell ourselves and the lengths we go to protect the people we love.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, baseball, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, found-family, second-chance
Setting: Boston, New York, Yankee Stadium
Period: 1978, October 1978
308 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux