Praise for THE SECOND SEASON

“Four years ago, in an essay published right here at The Millions, I asked why there hasn’t been a Great American Basketball Novel yet. Well, there is now: The Second Season…Adrian writes with a knowledge and passion for the game, but fandom is not a prerequisite for falling in love with this brilliant, warm, and funny book.”

-The Millions

“Those who have been waiting for a sports book with heart will devour the novel. The fresh story is enhanced by Adrian’s smooth, absorbing writing. A perfect pick for book clubs.”

-Booklist

“The spare, bold latest from Adrian follows a sportswriter as she reckons with middle age…Even the sports-averse will be caught up in the drama.”

-Publishers Weekly

“To borrow a sports idiom, Emily Adrian really stuffs the stat sheet here. She writes as engagingly and insightfully about basketball and broadcasting as she does about work, love, friendship, ambition, motherhood, aging, and the power and frailty of the body. Smart, tough, passionate Ruth Devon is a winning protagonist, and her poignant story is both suspenseful and meditative. The Second Season is a terrific sports novel, yes, but it’s also just a terrific novel.”

-Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special

“Sometimes it is scary reading Emily Adrian because she is honest in a way that hurts. She is brave and she is brutal. You don’t have to love basketball or care about motherhood to love this book, but this book will make you fall in love with both. I’m a goner; I will read anything she writes.”

-Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen

“In Emily Adrian’s hands, the most exciting story during the NBA Finals is not on the court, but on the sidelines. This book will draw you in right away and you won’t put it down until you’ve read the final sentence.”

-Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe

“Women with ambition, especially in sports, are often told: ‘Be quiet. Shrink. Don’t dream too big.’ Emily Adrian’s The Second Season squashes any notion of that. It shines in its portrayal of a woman protagonist who will not dim her light. This book is brilliant, engrossing and should be read by every person, basketball fan or not. My only wish is that Adrian had written this when I was a young girl, because it would have made me feel seen, encouraged, and understood.”

-Mirin Fader, staff writer for The Ringer and author of Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP

“Sport and bodies and ambition, motherhood and womanhood and obsession: Emily Adrian’s The Second Season masterfully gets you inside the particular thrill of sport whether it was ever capable of thrilling you before, and, deftly and warmly, pulls off the extraordinary feat of forcing you to root for a complicated, unapologetically ambitious fortysomething woman who also happens to be a mom. I loved this novel for its alacrity and its humanity and its humor, its attention to the body, and its willingness to let its characters pursue impossible-seeming dreams.”

-Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want

Praise for Emily Adrian and her previous novel, Everything Here is under Control:

"Filled with compelling characters…Full of texture and authentic human ambivalence."

-New York Times Book Review, on Everything Here is under Control

“A tender novel about early motherhood, small-town life, and the various ways people make their families.”

-The Millions. on Everything Here is under Control

"Emily Adrian is such a uniquely perceptive writer, possessing a kind of X-ray vision that finds the hidden truths inside of us, no matter how painful they might be… an amazing, open-hearted writer."

-Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

“A book so honest and raw…and yet so appealing and unputdownable and—dare I say, heartwarming…Magic, addictive, brilliant fun.”

-Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen 

"Emily Adrian writes with such a keen and sensitive eye, and she's funny, and she is an astute observer of human behavior."

-Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California

“A sharp, thoughtful, poignant look at early motherhood, a small town, and the complex, challenging, and beautiful relationships that make up our families both biological and chosen.”

-Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State

“Brutally tender, ferociously intimate, astonishingly surefooted, and deeply satisfying…An immersive, irresistible pleasure.”

-Chelsey Johnson, author of Stray City

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