UST grad to read from his new baseball novel
It's baseball season again – a perfect time for St. Thomas alumnus John Nemo '97 to read from his first novel, The King's Game, at noon Friday, April 20, in the O'Shaughnessy Room of O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center. Everyone's welcome.
Nemo said the novel "is a story of fathers, sons and baseball." He said that much of the inspiration behind The King's Game came from his childhood, when he attended countless Minnesota Twins baseball games with his dad, Dr. John Nemo, who was an English professor and dean of the college at St. Thomas until his death in 1993. His mother, Pat, retired this month after a 25-year writing and editing career at St. Thomas.
"My father was a baseball fanatic who was always trying to use the game as a metaphor for life," Nemo said. "The book actually ends with an essay of his I found arguing that very point – that baseball is indeed a metaphor for life, for spirituality, for man's struggle. I lived it with him, I learned it, and it came out in this novel."
The King's Game (Minneapolis: River City Press, March 2007, $14.95) is the story of Cody King, a veteran pitcher who takes the mound for game seven of the World Series unaware it will mark the final nine innings of his troubled life. With each pitch he confronts his past, from being abandoned by his teenage mother to fighting to keep his wife's love from fading away.
Nemo has enjoyed praise for the book from current and former Major League Baseball players, coaches and team officials, and The King's Game has been featured prominently on MLB's main blogging page, where Nemo's blog about the book is housed. He spent part of last month in Florida, alternating book signings before spring training games with bookstore events.
As a student Nemo was a print journalism major and was editor of the Aquin, St. Thomas' student newspaper. He went on to working as a reporter for the Arizona Republic and later for the Associated Press. He became a full-time freelance writer and author in 2001. He lives with his family in Woodbury.
Learn more about Nemo and the book at www.JohnNemoBooks.com.
