Play for a Kingdom, Thomas Dyja
Play for a Kingdom, Thomas Dyja
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Play for a Kingdom

Author: Thomas Dyja

Narrator: Ian Esmo

Unabridged: 13 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/24/2009

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

May, 1864. In a moment of quiet during the endgame between Grant and Lee, a Union and a Confederate company meet, not entirely by accident. The Union soldiers are a motley company of Irish, English, and German stock, all ragged and worn from the Battle of the Wilderness. Left behind to guard their army's flank, they decide to relax with a baseball and bat when, as if by magic, a company of Alabama infantry appears from the woods. These ordinary soldiers determine to play baseball with the enemy, perhaps for diversion, perhaps to remind themselves that they are still human.In the ensuing days, Brooklyn meets Alabama four more times on the playing field, even though their armies collide in the horror now known as Spotsylvania. As every game and skirmish brings them closer to a violent end, what began as a game turns into a business as serious as death and dishonor, and each soldier realizes the price and the prize that betrayal offers.

About Thomas Dyja

Thomas Dyja is the author of the award-winning The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream, as well as three novels. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim

Baseball--and the Civil War! A unique concept by Thomas Dyja and the book works well as a story about a series of baseball games and as a story about the Civil War, with descriptions of intense combat as well as detail about the day-to-day life of the soldiers. The story takes place during Grant's O......more

Goodreads review by Kathy

A friend gave me this book to read because I love historical fiction and the Civil War era in particular. I've been reading a lot of fantasy/young adult novels and wasn't really anxious to move to another genre just yet, but since it was a borrowed book, I didn't want to sit on it too long. Boy am I......more

Goodreads review by Carol

Outstanding Civil War novel -- truly balanced in the portrayal of North and South. Plus there's baseball!......more

Goodreads review by Gabby

One of the best books I've read from any genre on any subject. The story takes place in the midst of the Civil War close to the battle at Spotsylvania. The Union soldiers involved have less than a month to serve in their tour of duty. They are the 14th Regiment from Brooklyn, New York. All they want......more