Books by Bernard Malamud and Kevin Baker
“It is about a baseball player named Roy Hobbs. He’s a young phenom who gets knifed by a woman on a train and falls away from the game for many years, but comes back at the end of his career and makes it to the major league for one moment of potential triumph. It’s a very dark book, in fact. Roy Hobbs is a really one-dimensional figure…On the one hand, it’s a very gritty book, and on the other hand, it has deep mythic undertones. “ Read more...
Chad Harbach, Novelist
Interviews where books by Bernard Malamud and Kevin Baker were recommended
Books Robert Redford Starred In
We love books here at Five Books, and OK, we might be a bit snooty at times and insist that a book is always better than the movie based on it. And yet…there are many beloved books we wouldn’t have read if they hadn’t hit the big screen. In honour of Robert Redford (1936-2025), a list of some of the books recommended on our site that he starred in the film versions of. One of them changed my life.
Novels with Sporting Themes, recommended by Chad Harbach
Sport is central to American culture but there are surprisingly few great novels devoted to it. Chad Harbach, author of the bestselling novel, The Art of Fielding, picks his favourite ‘novels with sporting themes.’
The Best Baseball Novels, recommended by Michael Carlson
Sports pundit Michael Carlson says baseball reflects an American ideal which is now an American fantasy. It works well as a metaphor for life, which may be why there have been so many good novels written about it
