"In this wise, witty story set in West St. Paul in the '60s, a kid named Harlan navigates life by focusing on the Twins baseball team, a comic metaphor for hope. Sport is fat with small pleasures. It is a homer and a gift to all of us grownup knothole-game kids. There's a lot to love in this quiet little book, most of all its subtle wisdom about establishing individuality and finding joy amid chaos-in short, about growing up. " -Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Short and sweet, though not too sweet, and blessedly free of sentimentality. Mick Cochrane's intuitive, easygoing style finds a perfect balance mediating between the child and adult points of view." -Boston Globe
"With beautifully clean prose, Mick Cochrane has given us a novel evocative of everything from Emerson to Kerouac-nothing could be more American." -Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"Cochrane writes convincingly about troubled families without descending into the catch phrases of pop psychology. An appealing read." -Buffalo News
Mick Cochrane is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota. His first novel, Flesh Wounds, was named a finalist in Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers Competition. He teaches at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
