Magic Time

By W. P. Kinsella

From the author of Shoeless Joe, the book that inspired the movie Field of Dreams.

Mike Houle is a college all-star second baseman in his junior year when he turns down a fourth-round draft pick offer from the Montreal Expos. He'll finish his business degree and try his luck again next year. But Mike's final year in college sees his performance take a downward slide, and his big league dreams are going the way of his stats. When Mike's agent offers him a chance to play in the Cornbelt League in Iowa, Mike can't refuse. He can even handle the isolation of living in Grand Mound once he learns he's a cinch to start at second base.

Sure enough, Mike's never played better than on the Grand Mound Greenshirts, and he even begins to fall for the town's charms, including a certain Tracy Ellen Powell. That is, until he starts to suspect that when the good citizens of Grand Mound lure young men into their town, they have more on their minds than just baseball …

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jul 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9780007497584

W. P. Kinsella

William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC (born May 25, 1935) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His work has often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and other Canadian issues.

Reviews for Magic Time

[othemts · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is kind of an eh! novel where Kinsella strings together a bunch of previously published short stories with a weak story about a magical town that supports baseball players who can't make it big. Find another Kinsella novel or short story collection and you'll enjoy it a lot more.

[mbergman_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think Kinsella phoned this one in, stringing together some baseball stories (one of which I'd read in a collection) into a larger story about an idyllic, small Iowa town that lures talented ball players with a tendency to choke to play & live where ther are no pressures. Not very challenging, but Kinsella's baseball stories are always entertaining for a baseball fan, much like a Paul Bunyan tall tale.