Joe Columbus is an ordinary man: schoolteacher, husband, father-to-be. His younger brother, CJ, however, is anything but ordinary: the Chicago Cubs' star third baseman, a baseball hero, destined for greatness. In a voice both humorous and plaintive, Joe tells of his brother's remarkable ascent from the sandlots of their southern California childhood to the ivy-walled shrine of Wrigley Field, in an effort to explain not only CJ's apparently charmed life but also his own missteps and failures -- his collapsing marriage, his envy and cowardice, and a rift between brothers that is healed only by tragedy. Mark Friedman's first novel is the heartbreaking tale of two brothers whose lives lead to vastly different fates. A richly imagined story that explores both the grand and enduring allure of our national pasttime and the complications of our lives -- our longings, losses, and regrets -- COLUMBUS SLAUGHTERS BRAVES is for anyone who has had a hero or wanted to be one. Like W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE and Richard Ford's THE SPORTSWRITER, this is a compassionate but honest novel that introduces readers to a gifted and extraordinarily perceptive writer.