Fever Pitch

From the author of "High Fidelity" comes a sophisticated study of obsession, masculinity, class, identity and loyalty, in a bittersweet book that vividly recounts Hornby's youthful obsession with English football.

Nick Hornby has been a soccer fan since the moment he was conceived. "Fever Pitch" is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom -- its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men's coming of age stories. "Fever Pitch" is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

"This is tears-running-down-your-face funny, read-bits-out-loud-to-complete-strangers funny, but also highly perceptive and honest... Fever Pitch is not only the best football book ever written, it's the funniest book of the year". -- GQ

"Nick Hornby has established himself...as a maestro of the male confessional. (His) books reveal a fascination with the sheer voodoo of what so often passes for masculinity: the weird ritual facts, the useless objects, the losing clubs and teams". -- The New Yorker

"Comes closer to capturing the truths and absurdities of the obsessed sports fan's mind than anyone else I have read". -- John Gaustad, Observer