{"product_id":"the-amateur-9780385551298","title":"The Amateur","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eMidwives\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Flight Attendant: \u003c\/i\u003e When a young woman, a golf prodigy, kills a caddy with a stray ball at the country club, the investigation of this freak accident reveals a dark and shocking tale of secret affairs, predatory men, and a teenager on trial.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e1978: It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a golf ball from her tee toward the practice net near the clubhouse and caddy shack. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, traveling 150 miles per hour, and slams, with sickening force, into the temple of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, rupturing an artery and unleashing a torrent of blood. Kenny brings his hand to the side of his head, then topples onto his side. He's dead before the ambulance even arrives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the wake of this terrible accident--and everyone, at first, agrees it was an accident--Mira looks for comfort in all the wrong places: In her lover, Theo Catton, a married man three decades her senior. In her mother, a well-kept woman with secrets of her own. In the dead caddy's little sisters, girls bewildered by grief. But when the investigators look more closely at the torn net, when a detective recalls Mira's history of recklessness, and when Kenny's father spies Mira with her married lover, the affluent and mannered community turns on this once-promising young woman. A gripping story that takes the reader from the sun-soaked greens of a tony Westchester country club to the fluorescent-lit stand of a county courtroom, \u003ci\u003eThe Amateur\u003c\/i\u003e asks: What happens when one small moment--a swing, a ball, a piece of string--changes the course of an entire life?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Doubleday Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/04\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780385551298\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.29lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.84d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2026 pg. 100\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/15\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/04\/2026\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Chris Bohjalian","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52679665942709,"sku":"9780385551298","price":28.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_9379ad28-ac53-4d02-8b8f-3d60cad7ad49.jpg?v=1781047657","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-amateur-9780385551298","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}