First Edition, first printing, advance copy in softcover. Publisher's letter to booksellers bound inside. From the 2001 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction comes the story of a whole new universe--an American version of Middle-earth--with legendary beings, monsters, and mythical creatures, and where the powers of good and evil are engaged in an elaborate battle. Illustrations.

From the Publisher

For over a century, the people of Clam Island, Washington, have enjoyed barbecues and baseball games at Summerland, on the Western tip of the island, where it never rains. The small beings known as ferishers who ensure this perfect weather, however, are threatened by an ancient enemy, and need a hero a baseball star, in fact to vanquish their foe. Summerland is the story of Ethan Feld, the worst ball player in the history of the game, recruited by a hundred-year-old scout called Ringfinger Brown, himself a Negro League Legend. Accompanied by his determined friend, Jennifer T. Rideout, and guided by a friendly werefox, Ethan struggles to defeat giants, bat-winged goblins, and one of the toughest ballclubs in the realms of magic, to save all the Summerlands, and ultimately the world.