Chad Harbach to sign books at the Racine Public Library, Friday May 4, 2012 at 4:30pm

Chad Harbach, author of "The Art of Fielding," will be appearing at
the Racine Public Library on Friday, May 4 at 4:30pm for a fundraiser
for the Racine Public Library Foundation.  His book has just been
released in paperback and copies will be available for purchase at the
library.  Refreshments will be available.

First novelists rarely receive the type of reviews that Harbach, a
Racine native, has collected for his work.
One New York Times reviewer states, "Chad Harbach makes the case for
baseball, thrillingly, in his slow, precious and altogether excellent
first novel."  Another writes, "Chad Harbach's book "The Art of
Fielding" is not only a wonderful baseball novel — it zooms
immediately into the pantheon of classics, alongside "The Natural" by
Bernard Malamud and "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris — but it's also a
magical, melancholy story about friendship and coming of age that
marks the debut of an immensely talented writer."

From the New Yorker, a reviewer offers, "Perhaps the most unusual
feature of this unusually charming début is the easy, unpretentious
way it has of joining a love of baseball with a love of literature.
There's a pattern of Melvillian references that run playfully and
purposefully through the novel."

"Every word has been polished to an absolute gem," according to
Jessica MacPhail, Library Director.  "I am a diehard Cubs fan so I
loved the baseball theme, and the way literary references wove through
the narrative made reading it an amazing experience.  I highly
recommend it."

Chad Harbach graduated from St. Catherine's before he graduated from
Harvard in 1997. He was a Henry Hoyns Fellow at the University of
Virginia, where he received an MFA in Fiction in 2004. He is currently
the Executive Editor of n+1, which he co-founded, and lives in
Brooklyn.

Harbach will also appear at the Golden Rondelle at 7:00pm that same evening.