Season : Shortlisted for the Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction

A beautiful novel about the beautiful game'Jonathan PearceFor ten months of the year, two men are drawn toadjacent seats in a stadium, carrying the burdens of life and pouring all theirhopes into their beloved but ailing team. Fatherless and fretful, the Young Man is trying tonurture a precarious new relationship and to find his place in the world. TheOld Man, an increasingly isolated carer for his fading wife, knows he haslittle left to look forward to. Neither fan is a comfortable talker. However,in a slow-motion play of nods, silences and guarded chats, they strike up atentative friendship across the generational gap. Toldthrough thirty-eight chapters - one for each game of the Premier Leaguecampaign - Season is a lyrical, hypnotic and gently uplifting study ofloneliness and modern masculinity. About much more than football, it celebratesthe healing, unifying and maddening role of ritualised sport in the lives ofordinary people.