THE COMEBACK SEASON

Hope springs eternal for one Chicago Cubs fan even as she struggles to come to terms with her father’s death. Though ninth-grader Ryan Walsh’s father died five years ago, she still clings to his memory and their shared passion for the biggest losers in baseball. Then she meets kind, confident Nick, also a Cubs lover, and the two fall into an easy friendship that revolves around Wrigley Field. But when Nick reluctantly reveals he is in remission for bone cancer, Ryan has to decide if she is willing to risk loving someone who, unlike her favorite team, may not have a “next year.” Set in the summer of 2008—the start of the 100th season since the Cubs won a World Series—this moving debut isn’t so much about baseball as it is an examination of the roles that faith, luck and fate play in the game of life. But even though Smith’s clean, uncomplicated prose and gently told story are more Sarah Dessen than Chris Crutcher, both romantics and sports fans will find something here to like. (Fiction. 12-15)