The Natural

By Bernard Malamud,

Book cover of The Natural

Book description

This is a book about heroism - of sorts. Roy Hobbs has an immense natural gift for playing baseball. He could become one of the great ones of the game, a player unmatched in his time - a hero. But his first hard-won big chance ends violently, at the hands…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Natural as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Most baseball fans know that director Barry Levinson changed the ending to The Natural when he adapted the book into a film. Instead of striking out, Roy Hobbs hits a game-winning home run into the lights. The movie is full of hope, but the book is wonderfully grim.

It’s a story of hubris and corruption, a baseball noir published in 1952, just as the postwar American dream was starting to dissipate with the Civil Rights Era, McCarthyism, and fears of nuclear holocaust. Malamud writes beautifully about the game he loves while gazing with clear eyes at the country that invented…

Want books like The Natural?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Natural.

Browse books like The Natural

Book cover of Ball Four: The Final Pitch
Book cover of The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team
Book cover of I Never Had It Made: The Autobiography of Jackie Robinson

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,535

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in baseball, nuclear holocaust, and McCarthyism?

Baseball 178 books
McCarthyism 9 books