Bernard Malamud

Gifted baseball player Roy Hobbs, his career derailed by a youthful indiscretion, makes a stunning comeback in later life, but finds himself still struggling against the temptations that would bring him to ruin.

Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball stardom. As a 14-year old he fashions a baseball bat from an oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability. His talent also catches the eye of a sportswriter who eventually becomes instrumental in Hobbs' career. The appearance of a mysterious woman, however, shatters his dream. Years later Hobbs reappears as a rookie for the New York Knights and has...

Big chill : The growing pains of seven college housemates from the 1960s who have drifted apart and then reunite at the funeral of a friend. Harold has "grown up" to be a running-shoe magnate; Michael, a gossip magazine journalist; Sam, TV's hottest private eye; Nick, a drug dealer; Sarah is a doctor; Meg, a lawyer; and Karen, a wife and mother in the suburbs. Stunned by the death of their peer, sensing their own mortality and the loss of their innocence,...