Suder: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Craig Suder, third baseman for the Seattle Mariners, is in a terrible slump. He s batting below .200 at the plate, and even worse in bed with his wife; and he secretly fears he s inherited his mother s insanity. Ordered to take a midseason rest, Suder instead takes his record of Charlie Parker s Ornithology, his record player, and his new saxophone and flees, negotiating his way through madcap adventures and flashbacks to childhood ( If you folks believed more strongly in God, maybe you wouldn t be colored ). Pursued by a raging dope dealer, saddled with a mishandled elephant and an abused little white girl, he manages in the end to fly free, both transcending and inspired by the pull of so much life."