The title and opening pages of Salter’s assured, engaging debut suggest that this story of two brothers, Wally and Henry, getting the chance to play for one of the most storied of college football teams will turn toward the tragic. It will, heartbreakingly, but football fans—and any fiction readers fascinated by the choices and challenges facing young American men—will likely find the journey arresting. Eager to get away from the father who adopted them, our protagonist Wally—a not-especially talented player—leaps at the chance to go to Florida’s Bastille University with his adopted brother Henry, a savant of a kicker whose undiagnosed mental issues demand Wally’s care. Wally’s not expected to play much, but he does make the team, setting the ball for Henry to kick and doing all he can to protect his brother from the world. Meanwhile, a magazine reporter suspects there’s dark secrets at Bastille, possibly hidden by its celebrated coach.

Salter proves adept at crafting a persuasive depiction of the college football life: the long bus trips, luxury apartments, and grueling practices offset by hours of weed and videogames. He’s especially good at the raucous camaraderie among the players, plus the thrill and terror of being jeered by thousands at away games. Eventually, the young players face tragedies, both surprising and perhaps inevitable, as Wally finds himself on the outs with the program over the kind of abuses that ruin real people’s lives—abuses that a nationally renowned championship football program would prefer to cover up.

Salter’s strong feeling for character, conflict, and compelling scenes keep the pages of this long novel turning, and his depiction of life inside the bubble of high-stakes college sports is compelling and mostly convincing. The tension mounts slowly, as Salter’s as invested in the texture of life as he is in suspense; readers open to a slow-burn with vivid, drawn-from-life detail will be rewarded.

Takeaway: This vividly told story of college football pits brothers against institutional abuses.

Great for fans of: Emily Nemens’s The Cactus League, Albert Samaha’s Never Ran, Never Will.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A