“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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