The Catch

A Novel

By: Alison Fairbrother

Narrated by: Julia Knippen

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A young woman searches for the truth about her father—and the secrets of her family—in this “big-hearted debut that absolutely crackles with smarts” (Emma Straub).

“A warm and funny debut novel . . . perceptive, wry, and witty.”—The New York Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

Two years out of college, Ellie Adler has a job in journalism, an older lover, and a circle of smart friends. Her beloved father, James, who has children from three marriages, unites the family with his gentle humor and charisma, but Ellie has always believed she is her father's favorite. When he suddenly dies, she finds herself devastated by the unexpected loss. Then, at the reading of his will, she learns that instead of leaving her his prized possession—a baseball that holds emotional resonance for them both—he has left her a seemingly ridiculous, even insulting gift. Worse, he’s given the baseball to someone no one in the family has ever heard of.

In her grief, Ellie wonders who could have possibly meant more to her father than she did. Setting out to track this person down, she learns startling information about who her father really was and who she herself is becoming. Moving, witty, and unforgettable, The Catch is a story of the gifts we’re given over the course of a lifetime, by family, friends, and strangers—the ones we want and the ones that catch us unawares.

©2022 Alison Fairbrother (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[A] warm and funny debut novel . . . perceptive, wry, and witty . . . with well-wrought observation of the rhythm and patterns of grief. . . . Ellie’s careless behavior represents an underexplored and therefore exciting investigation into a family dynamic—one in which a daughter responds to her father’s reckless entitlement not by shrinking into herself, by becoming ultra-virtuous or self-destructive, but by acting out with similar reckless entitlement in turn. . . . The strength of this book [is] the depiction of a smart, talented and sexual young woman who is in the process of learning, as adults must, to balance pride with humility, pain with pleasure, and acceptable fictions with uncomfortable truths.”—The New York Times

“The Catch is a thoroughly entertaining and absorbing book by a writer who is brilliantly funny. I laughed, I cried, I thought about life. I now want to read whatever Alison Fairbrother writes.”—Susan Minot, author of Why I Don’t Write: And Other Stories

“This big-hearted debut absolutely crackles with smarts—the sentences are crisp, the story unfurls, the characters are just right. The Catch is a delightful read about love, loss, and the vulnerability of growing up.”—Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here

Great narration, terrible book

The Catch was major disappointment for me. The main character was narcissistic and whiny, and the plot was all over the place. Sorry I wasted a credit on this one.