The Man With Two Arms: A Novel

By Billy Lombardo

Henry Granville, a baseball fanatic and high school teacher, spends hours in the basement with his young son Danny, introducing him to balls of all shapes and sizes. He even turns the basement into an indoor stadium. Danny quickly distinguishes himself from his peers, most conspicuously by his ability to throw perfectly with either arm-a feat virtually unheard of in baseball. But he also possesses a visionary gift that not even he understands. Danny becomes a superior athlete, skyrocketing through the minor leagues and into the majors where he experiences immediate success, breaking records held for decades.

When a journalist, a former student of Henry's hungry for a national breakout story, exaggerates the teacher's obsession and exposes him to the world as a monster, all hell breaks loose and the pressures of media and celebrity threaten to disrupt the world that Henry and Danny have created. A baseball novel--and much more--The Man with Two Arms is a story of the ways in which we protect, betray, forgive, love, and shape each other as we attempt to find our way through life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Feb 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9781590206027

Billy Lombardo

Billy Lombardo is the author of poetry, fiction, essays, plays, reviews, interviews, articles, screenplays, and more. His books include: The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, The Man with Two Arms, Morning Will Come, How to Hold a Woman, and Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns. He is a Nelson Algren Award winner and the founder of Polyphony Lit, a student-run, international literary magazine for high school writers and editors. He is the founder of The Writing Pros/e, a writing and editing business. He teaches English at Trinity High School for Girls in River Forest, IL. Billy is a best-selling ghostwriter and still works one-on-one with a limited number of clients. He lives in Chicago with Amy and Valentino.