Play for a Kingdom by Thomas Dyja; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Ian Esmo

Winner of the Casey Award in 1998

May, 1864. In a moment of quiet during the endgame between Grant and Lee, a Union and a Confederate company meet, not entirely by accident. The Union soldiers are a motley company of Irish, English, and German stock, all ragged and worn from the Battle of the Wilderness. Left behind to guard their army's flank, they decide to relax with a baseball and bat when, as if by magic, a company of Alabama infantry appears from the woods. These ordinary soldiers determine to play baseball with the enemy, perhaps for diversion, perhaps to remind themselves that they are still human.

In the ensuing days, Brooklyn meets Alabama four more times on the playing field, even though their armies collide in the horror now known as Spotsylvania. As every game and skirmish brings them closer to a violent end, what began as a game turns into a business as serious as death and dishonor, and each soldier realizes the price and the prize that betrayal offers.

“This innovative and original first novel blends two staples of the Americans psyche—The Civil War and baseball—into a recipe for a very readable book. The battle scenes ring true…And the baseball scenes ring true as well. Dyja's book is admirably wrought."—Washington Post BookWorld

“A sweeping novel of humanity on the battlefield, peopled with provocative characters. Play for a Kingdom is that rare treat: a novel that interweaves war and play, an ironic tale told with compassion. Watch Tom Dyja."—Santa Barbara News-Press

“The madness of war and the passion evoked by baseball complement each other beautifully in this extraordinary first novel…A sensitive, forceful, even breathtaking commingling of play and war, daydream and nightmare, the humane and the bestial, in which the human dimensions of warfare are unforgettably evoked.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Dyja has a gifted understanding of the powerlessness one faces in combat. War in this novel is not tragic merely because it kills and maims good men; it is dispiriting because it robs them of their identities…The tense mixture of espionage, betrayal, and vivid battle scenes should please discriminating fans of Civil War fiction.”—Amazon.com Review

“Dyja effectively juxtaposes the horror and chaos of war with the familiar routine of the game. He explores the theme of war and games as natural activities of man, as battles of pride and place, and as testing grounds of moral and physical honor…An engrossing story, told within the context of actual events.”—Library Journal

“A uniquely compelling Civil War novel set amid the chaos and devastation that characterized the savage battle of Spotsylvania…An absolutely stunning narrative.”—Booklist

Thomas Dyja is the author of novels (Play for a Kingdom, which won the Casey Award in 1998 for the best baseball book of the year; Meet John Trow, and The Moon in Our Hands), nonfiction (Only Connect, with Dr. Rudy Crew, about reforming our schools), and children's books, and has edited a number of books of biography. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives in New York City.